Regulatory Reform Attaching Priority on Tasks Concerning Economy
- The Regulatory Reform Task Force specifies the 2005 regulatory reform plan

The government plans to put regulatory reform priority on tasks with widespread economic effects, including improvement of the business investment climate, in a bid to create jobs and boost the sagging economy
Park Ki-jong, deputy minister of regulatory reform under the Prime Minister's Office, unveiled the task direction of the 2005 regulatory reform plan during the 2005 New Year CEO Forum held on the COEX InterContinental Hotel on January 13. Lump-sum regulations, individual regulations and onsite regulations will be overhauled in a systematic way with roles being divided among the Regulatory Reform Task Force, government offices and local governments.
Once a decision is reached regarding regulation reform, he said, follow-up measures like law revisions should be implemented quickly to yield desired benefits of regulatory reform.
An increase in new regulations will be limited as much as possible and regulatory compliance will be enhanced to improve regulatory quality.
As part of efforts to reform existing regulations systematically, the Regulatory Reform Task Force will select lump-sum regulations, which involve multiple government offices with widespread effects on regulatory reform as strategic tasks and reform them on a quarterly base. Housing & construction, land, sea & air transportation, job training, and culture & art regulations will be deregulated during the first quarter of the year; e-Commerce, new product & technology, medicine & food industries general policies, and medical service. During the second quarter; tourism& leisure, agricultural & marine products distribution, information, communication & press media, and silver industries. In the third quarter; and finance business entry & operation, telecommunication operation, mandatory employment, and various subsidy systems will be handled.
The central government will overhaul government offices individual regulations. In the next two years, 155 regulations or 14.6 percent of 7,919 registered regulations will be reformed. A total of 592 regulations have been identified by government offices, and 563 regulations pointed out by the public and companies. During 2005, 702 regulations will be reformed, while the government plans to reform 278 other regulations in 2006.
Regulatory reform will be accelerated by local governments, which serve as a main contact point for regulation enforcement. Focus will be put on unreasonable regulations for resolutions, backing up regulations with laws, clarifying abstract regulations, and simplifying an approval & permit process. Unreasonable regulation enforcement practices like passive attitude on the part of public officials will be improved.
Local governments will establish and share a regulatory reform model by local government type. Each local government will follow the model to set up and complete a regulatory reform plan in the first half of the year. A finalized regulatory reform plan will be implemented to overhaul all the rules & regulations in a lump-sum manner in the second half of the year. Regulatory reform performances of local governments will be examined and evaluated in December 2005.
The Regulatory Reform Committee will address redundant regulations which the government put under quasi-public organizations responsibility and which have an actual impact on people. Regulations run by such institutions as associations, corporations, and business organizations ? established by a special law or organizations, which are entrusted by the government ? will be streamlined.
Guidelines for overhauling redundant regulations, including overhauling principles and cases by type will be shared. A plan for streamlining redundant regulations will be set up through discussion between government offices and relevant organizations responsible for overhauling. An expert sub-committee will be created by area in the Regulatory Reform Task Force in order to study redundant administration regulations as a whole and to finalize a plan for overhauling them. Regulatory reform will be pursued on a user-oriented basis.
Cooperation with business associations, foreign chambers of commerce & industry will be maintained, and suggestions for regulatory reform will be gathered periodically. Public suggestions for regulatory reform will be collected and they will be reflected into regulatory reform.
The Regulatory Reform Task Force visits local residents and business people to hear their opinions and views on regulatory reform to come up with practical improvement measures and to support regional regulatory reform, while holding on-site briefings and discussions on the governmental plans for regulatory reform to secure public participation and support for regulatory reform.
The Business Bottleneck Resolution Center has been operating. More active and efficient business bottleneck resolutions will be established on the basis on experience and knowledge gained through operation of the center. How to resolve problems will be explained within a day of problem report, and such problems concerning simple administration affairs will be solved within a week and others concerning differences between government offices and system improvement, within a month. A survey of center users will be conducted on such issues as center fairness, fastness, kindness, and the results of the survey will be used for future system improvement. As of last December, a total of 306 cases have been received since last April, and 283 cases of them have been fully resolved ? 178 cases resolved and 105 others referred.
The personnel in charge of monitoring regulatory reform are selected among experts and the public in order to identify regulatory reforms tasks and to seek advice on regulatory reform. The monitoring personnel of regulatory reform performance and results are informed periodically to boost their interest and understanding of government regulatory reform. The government will strengthen cooperation with the business community in pursuing regulatory reform.
Opinions and understanding of regulations vary by social organizations, requiring to take a balanced view & approach, and to gather public opinions comprehensively, he said. In this regard, the business community is also required to take not just individual company perspectives but also the entire business and national perspectives to address issues and concerns. Unreasonable regulations on the site will be actively identified and reported to the Regulatory Reform Task Force. Individual business bottlenecks will be reported to the Business Bottleneck Resolution Center.
A private center for business regulatory reform, established in August last year within the Korea Chamber of Commerce & Industry is aimed at consolidating business-government cooperation contact points for regulatory reform. The body serves as a contact point for five economic organizations to identify and report recommendations and suggestions. The Federation of Korean industries has established and run a regulatory reform task force together with the Korea Economic Research Institute (KERI) in order to give expert study and review to regulatory reform. The FKI plans to work with the KERI to implement a plan for improving training of business owners.
A corporate regulation team has been operated within the Regulatory Reform Task Force in order to identify and discuss unreasonable business regulations in a systematic way. Public-private cooperation will be used in the Regulatory Reform council in order to deal with and discuss improvement of business regulatory reform. The members of the council include executives of economic associations and companies, and bureau directors of planning agencies and government offices. nw