President Moon Jae-in has appointed Kwon Deok-cheol_권덕철 as vice minister of health and welfare, promoting him from the post of assistant minister for planning and coordination.

The Presidential Blue House Tuesday said Kwon is “a veteran policymaker who has a thorough understanding of healthcare issues and real ability to communicate with the field.”

Kwon, born in Namwon, North Jeolla Province, graduated from Sungkyunkwan University and got his master’s and doctoral degrees at Speyer University in Germany. After passing the 31st state test for civil service, he has served as the director-general at the ministry’s various bureaus, including those dealing with childcare policy, welfare policy, and healthcare policy.

He was dispatched Cheong Wa Dae during the Kim Dae-jung administration in October 2002, and took part in state affairs under the Roh Moo-hyun government, too, maintaining his relationship with the liberal camp through the Moon administration. As Kwon has worked at various departments of the ministry, he has a deep understanding of pending medical issues and reportedly maintains a smooth relationship with the medical community.

Vice Minister Kwon will likely focus on making welfare policies in keeping with the new government’s principal task of creating new jobs. The ministry has already received supplementary budget 864.9 billion won ($769.4 million) to be used for job creation by, for instance, expanding dementia support centers, expanding home-visit healthcare services, and replenishing safety guards at mental healthcare facilities.

Particularly, the state responsibility system of Alzheimer patients is one of the healthcare policies the Moon administration is prioritizing related to job creation. So the ministry, and the vice minister, need to produce tangible results in the early days of the new government, industry watchers said.

“I will handle my job in balanced manners, communicate with the field and solve (pending issues) one by one,” Vice Minister Kwon said upon the news of his appointment Tuesday.

“We need to provide health insurance coverage to all medical services on a phased basis and reform the fee system to help establish the functions and roles of medical institutions of varying sizes,” Kwon said in his inaugural address Wednesday. “The ministry should also promote anchoring general hospitals in all regions to help people in remote areas receive healthcare services more quickly, and secure workforce for public healthcare facilities for the same purpose.”

The medical community also expressed expectation upon the news of his appointment. “The new president chose one of the insiders. As Vice Minister Kwon has frequently exchanged policy-related talks with the industry, we believe he will push for consistent healthcare policy,” said an official at Korean Medical Association_{대한의사협회}(KMA).

And the industry predicts the government will also appoint the minister soon. Some say the delayed appointment is due to intensive screening of candidates as the opposition parties’ tackles in confirming hearings have been far tougher than expected. Given the vice minister is familiar with healthcare issues, the new minister will likely come from among welfare experts.