Li Yong (; born October 1951) is the former Vice-Minister of the Ministry of Finance of China and the former Director General of the

United Nations Industrial Development Organization The United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) (French: Organisation des Nations unies pour le développement industriel; French/Spanish acronym: ONUDI) is a specialized agency of the United Nations that assists countries in ...

Biography

Li was born in

Jining Jining () is a prefecture-level city in southwestern Shandong province. It borders Heze to the southwest, Zaozhuang to the southeast, Tai'an to the northeast, and the provinces of Henan and Jiangsu to the northwest and south respectively. Jinin ...

Shandong Shandong ( , ; ; Chinese postal romanization, alternately romanized as Shantung) is a coastal Provinces of China, province of the China, People's Republic of China and is part of the East China region. Shandong has played a major role in His ...

, China to Han parents. He joined the

Communist Party of China The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), officially the Communist Party of China (CPC), is the founding and sole ruling party of the People's Republic of China (PRC). Under the leadership of Mao Zedong, the CCP emerged victorious in the Chinese Ci ...

in 1973. Li received a master's degree in economics following his graduation from the Research Institute for Fiscal Science of the Ministry of Finance later that year. From 1985 to 1988 he served as first and second secretary to the United Nations Mission from China, and became Director of the

World Bank The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and grants to the governments of low- and middle-income countries for the purpose of pursuing capital projects. The World Bank is the collective name for the Inte ...

Ministry of Finance in 1989. He served at this post for a year. Following that, he became an advisor to the World Bank and served under this post until 1996. Li was thus promoted to Director-General, and to Executive Director in 1996. He filled this position until 1998. In 1999, he became the Secretary-General at the Chinese Institute of Certified Public Accountants and served simultaneously as Assistant Minister at the Chinese Ministry of Finance from 2000 to 2002. He quit his Assistant Ministership to be promoted Vice Minister in 2003. On May 7, 2006, Li presented his prediction of a 25 percent drop in the value of the

U.S. dollar The United States dollar ( symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...

. This caused debate on the creation of an Asian Currency Unit (ACU), an index that tries to capture the value of an Asian currency by taking an average on several of them. One of his highest priorities as Vice Minister was to fight inflation by promoting production in agriculture. On 24 June 2013, Li was elected by

UNIDO The United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) (French: Organisation des Nations unies pour le développement industriel; French/Spanish acronym: ONUDI) is a specialized agency of the United Nations that assists countries in ...

's Industrial Development Board to succeed

Kandeh Yumkella Alhaji Dr. Kandeh Kolleh Yumkella (born July 5, 1959) is a Sierra Leonean agricultural economist, politician, and the former United Nations Under-Secretary-General and the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Sustainable Energy ...

as Director General of UNIDO. He was appointed Director General by a special session of the Organization's General Conference on 28 June 2013.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Li, Yong 1951 births Living people People's Republic of China politicians from Shandong Economists from Shandong Chinese diplomats Chinese Communist Party politicians from Shandong Politicians from Jining United Nations Industrial Development Organization people