(Yicai Global) July 8 -- The former vice governor of central Hunan province has been appointed deputy finance minister at China’s Ministry of Finance.

Zhu Zhongming will be in charge of the department of natural resources and ecological environment, the department of agriculture and rural affairs, the department of accounting, the bureau of supervision and evaluation and a number of other divisions including regulatory bureaus, according to the MOF website.

49-year-old Zhu will be the youngest leader in the ministry. He joins eight others in the top echelons, including Finance Minister Liu Kun, Yang Guozhong, head of the MOF’s supervision team of the State Supervision Commission of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, Liu Wei, chairman of the National Council for Social Security Fund, four other deputies and an assistant minister.

Zhu spent most of his career in southeastern Zhejiang province, part of the economic powerhouse of the Yangtze River Delta Region. He was appointed vice governor of Hunan in April this year.

He is likely filling the shoes of former vice minister of finance Cheng Lihua who is now deputy secretary of the Communist Party of China’s Anhui Provincial Committee.

In another major personnel shuffle, yesterday Zhou Qiangwu, ex-director general of the MOF’s International Economics and Finance Institute, took up the posts of vice president and chief administrative officer at BRICS’ New Development Bank.

Editors: Tang Shihua, Kim Taylor