A Conversation with an Expert in Policy and Budgeting, Ki Keun Lim, Administrator of the Public Procurement Service

Introducing the Interviewee: Alumnus Ki Keun Lim
Alumnus Ki Keun Lim (BBA ‘86) graduated from the College of Business Administration at Seoul National University and obtained a master’s degree in economics from Indiana University, USA. He is an expert in policy and budgeting who entered public service in 1993 after passing the 36th Public Administration Exam, holding key positions in the 1st and 2nd Vice Minister’s Office at the Ministry of Economy and Finance. He was responsible for planning the national budget as the Director General for Administrative and National Defense Budget, the Director General for Economic Affairs and Budget, and the Director General for Budget Coordination. He also expanded his expertise in economic and fiscal policies by serving as the Director General for Public Institutions Policy, the Director General for Policy Coordination, and the Director General for Fiscal Planning. Since December 2023, he has been working as the Administrator of the Public Procurement Service (PPS).

1. Can you tell us about your career as an economic bureaucrat?
I was first assigned to the Budget Policy Team at the Office of Budgeting of the Economic Planning Board. The Economic Planning Board was in charge of both planning and budgeting and played a pivotal role in South Korea’s economic growth. I was extremely fortunate to start my career at such a prestigious organization. After that, I continued working at the Ministry of Economy and Finance in both the 1st and 2nd Vice Ministers’ Offices. I spent a significant part of my career working on budgeting, as I worked in the Budget Office as a deputy director, director, and director general for twelve years. I also worked on economic policies and policy coordination at the 1st Vice Minister’s Office, especially at the Office of Innovation and Growth, and as the Director General for Policy Coordination.
Other than the Ministry of Economy and Finance, I worked at the Office of the President, the Permanent Mission of the Republic of Korea to the United Nations, and the National Assembly, where I had opportunities to coordinate state affairs and national agenda and be involved in international relations and political issues.
My current role as the Administrator of the PPS marks a significant moment in my life. My role has shifted from being an advisor to becoming a leader of a public institution. As the Administrator, I am experiencing what it means to lead by sharing my vision, mobilizing organizational capacities to achieve goals, and motivating employees through incentives. I strive to care for my employees with a mother’s heart while managing risks across the organization.
My experience in various roles has allowed me to develop my expertise in policy and budgeting. Budgeting, in particular, is more than just numbers; it reflects and illustrates a significant portion of each ministry’s policies. In this context, I believe my greatest strength lies in my broad experience across different policy areas, including economic policy, growth policy, and fiscal policy.

2. What does the PPS do?
The PPS is in charge of supplying and signing contracts for the items, services, and facilities required by the central government, local governments, and public agencies. This is its fundamental role, and additionally, it builds up a reserve of key resources, such as aluminum and copper, to stabilize the supply chain and manage state property. It also operates the national electronic procurement system, the Korea ON-line E-Procurement System, known as the “Nara Jangteo.”
This may not seem like a big deal, but public procurement in South Korea is worth 210 trillion won, accounting for 10% of the national GDP. Furthermore, there are about 70,000 organizations from the central government, local government, and public institutions that are supplied through public procurement, and more than 600,000 companies that supply them. Public procurement can thus contribute to resource allocation, economic growth, and reduced economic volatility, which are generally considered the roles of economic policies.

The PPS has a 76-year history. It began as the “Temporary Foreign Capital Bureau” in 1949 and was officially renamed the “Public Procurement Office” in 1961. While the PPS may not be a household name, it has a long history as a government organization. In recent days, the policy environment has become extremely complex, resulting in the relative lack of influence of individual policy tools such as budgets, taxes, currency, finance, and regulation compared to the past. This is why this is the right time to actively utilize “public procurement” as an important policy tool to meet policy goals. Many EU or OECD member states actively use public procurement to meet their policy goals. The role of public procurement will become increasingly important to achieve the national strategic goals for overcoming issues related to low birth rates, carbon neutrality, fostering industrial ecosystems, and social responsibility. For instance, public procurement can be used as a policy tool to provide extra bidding points to companies that support childbirth and produce low-carbon products, promote overseas exports of innovative companies, and prioritize social enterprises.

3. Which policies did you prioritize as the Administrator of the PPS, and what are your accomplishments?

I set two catchphrases as the Administrator of the PPS.

① A Friend of Small and Medium-sized Businesses, Venture Companies, and Innovative Companies
A true friend is someone who helps friends in challenging situations and provides additional support to successful friends. After being appointed as the Administrator of the PPS, I chose my first catchphrase as, “A Friend of Small and Medium-sized Businesses, Venture Companies, and Innovative Companies,” so that the PPS could become friends to businesses, help companies experiencing difficulties, and support the further growth of successful companies. The PPS strongly advocates for deregulation and inter-departmental collaboration, connecting companies that have worked with the PPS to other ministries, such as the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, the Ministry of Employment and Labor, the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, for R&D and overseas export. Moreover, through the “Public Procurement Guide Service,” the PPS matches companies that want to enter the public procurement market with various programs, such as the online procurement system for venture companies, innovative products, and excellent products, depending on each company’s circumstances.

② Back to the Basics

The second catchphrase is “Back to the Basics.” I am working to ensure that the fundamental values of “fairness, transparency, quality, and safety,” which the public expects from the public procurement market, are deeply instilled in the public procurement market. To this end, the processes related to the bidding and evaluation must be conducted fairly. With the conviction that transparency is our only solution, the PPS has disclosed the entire evaluation process to the public live on YouTube. By constantly monitoring the bidding process and encouraging any reports on corruption, we are taking action against companies that engage in unfair procurement practices.
In addition, I defined our organization’s way of working in the following four words: “experience, field, action, and speed.” The PPS works closely in the field, so it is crucial that the policies it implements are field-based. I chose the four words, “experience, field, action, and speed,” to represent our work style because the PPS needs to speed up our process while reflecting the voices of the field so that the public or procuring companies feel the effect of our policies.
Thanks to our efforts, the PPS received “excellent” ratings in all five categories in the government performance evaluation held by the Prime Minister’s Office in 2024. Only three of the 46 agencies evaluated achieved “excellent” grades in all five categories. Moreover, we received an “excellent” rating in the Ministry of Personnel Management’s Active Administration Evaluation and the highest rating in the Integrity Evaluation led by the Anti-Corruption & Civil Rights Commission. We also filmed a promotional video introducing the tasks by the PPS, featuring Suejin Kang, Artistic Director of the Korean National Ballet. Just as Director Suejin Kang nurtures world-class ballet stars, the PPS similarly supports companies to help them become stars that can expand their businesses abroad. Furthermore, just as ballet is an art that requires harmony between ballerinas and ballerinos, we showed in the video that the PPS also ensures that mutual transactions and contracts are conducted fairly and harmoniously. This promotional video won a total of four awards at various advertising competitions, including two grand prizes.
I gave much thought to what catchphrases to use for 2025. Rather than choosing a new set of words, I proceeded with the second seasons of “A Friend of Small and Medium-sized Businesses, Venture Companies, and Innovative Companies” and “Back to the Basics.” While maintaining the existing policy framework, I aim to expand its breadth and depth so our practices can have more tangible effects on companies and gain the public’s trust.

4. What has been the most memorable moment in your public service career?

In my 32 years as a civil servant, I found it much more interesting and meaningful to envision a new policy or system from scratch rather than make minor adjustments to the existing system. This is because I can freely draw a plan on a blank piece of paper without any limitations from my predecessor, make an argument, and explain my logic, the feasibility, and the potential of my plan. For example, South Korea has a five-year National Fiscal Management Plan as a mid-term fiscal plan, which I initially devised. I also separated the credit sector and economy sector of the National Agricultural Cooperative Federation and created the pledge ledger as the Director for Budget Policy. During my tenure as the Director for Budget Coordination, we met the constitutional deadline for passing the budget in the National Assembly after two decades, and I established the Korean New Deal as the Director General for Policy Coordination. During the COVID-19 pandemic, I was the Director General responsible for hosting the Emergency Economy-related Ministerial Meetings, where I presided over the weekly meetings. As the Director General for Public Institutions Policy, I introduced the job-based pay system by establishing the 100 Public Institutions Reform Tasks. Introducing new systems and plans like these was my most memorable experience.

At the Ministry of Economy and Finance, employees vote at the end of each year for the manager they respect the most, and those selected for three consecutive years are inducted into the Hall of Fame. Many managers from the Ministry of Economy and Finance have been inducted into the Hall of Fame, but most were inducted as Deputy Ministers, Director Generals, and experienced Directors. I joined the Hall of Fame after being voted one of the best managers for three consecutive years, beginning from my first year as a Director, making this an unforgettable memory.
I also remember making the promotional video for the PPS. Casting Director Suejin Kang for the video was not an easy feat, but we created an excellent video with the ballerinas at the Korean National Ballet. Recently, we have been producing a second promotional video featuring the next-generation Korea ON-line E-Procurement System (KONEPS), which will star archer Woo-jin Kim, weightlifter Hye-jeong Park, and Taekwondo athlete Da-bin Lee. We are creating a video that conveys the message of the PPS breaking through the limitations of the existing KONEPS and advancing with the new system. I also cherish the memory of a posting saying, “Our Administrator is great” on the anonymous online board at the PPS after last year’s parliamentary inspection.

5. Do you have any memorable experiences or courses as an undergraduate student?
I entered the university in 1986, during which authoritarianism transitioned to democratization. I would not call myself an active student activist, but I appreciated and was grateful for the opportunity to consider the future of our society and the roles of intellectuals. Regarding courses, I still remember the concept of “total marketing.” Marketing is not simply about producing products and thinking about how to sell them; it is about capturing the demands and needs of customers and redesigning the entire production and distribution process to meet them.
This is an extremely important concept that should not be limited to marketing. The government should also implement policies from this perspective. Understanding the wants and needs of policy consumers and effectively mobilizing policy instruments to meet them is the key to a successful policy process. This is why I think the concept of total marketing should also be adopted in the policy sphere. Devising the policies you believe are right and enforcing them on the public is far from an appropriate process.
I also remember “accounting,” which is a way to analyze a company’s past, present, and future using numbers. I also learned more about the relationship between accounting and companies through the book Manage with Numbers, written by my friend Professor Jong Hag Choi. It is a fascinating book that accurately captures and explains the relationship between accounting and entrepreneurship.

6. Do you have any words of advice for Business School students?
First, I want you to be happy, whether you pursue a legal profession or become an accountant, an investment banker, or a civil servant. Happiness, in this case, presupposes a life filled with meaning and joy. Joy without meaning makes you feel purposeless while meaning without joy makes you feel soulless. It is crucial to find a balance between the two.
Next, I advise you not to confuse individualism with egotism. The difference between the two lies in whether you are aware of the community. Egotism leaves no room for the community, while the community can be part of individualism. Only with sound individualism can a community become mature and healthy.
You are some of the most talented people in this country and have greatly benefited from your families and communities. I hope you do not confuse individualism with egotism in your professional and social lives; be conscious of the community and strive to be a force for good in society.