Busan City's Regulatory Improvement and Proactive Administration Selected as National Best Practice

Gijang-gun Osiria Tourism Complex '600 Million KRW Saved on Reinstallation Costs of Nonpoint Pollution Reduction Facilities'

Panoramic view of Busan City Hall. (Photo by Busan City Hall)

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters, Reporter Yoon Yoseop] Busan City’s active interpretation of related regulations to improve regulations has led to the case of Osiria Tourist Complex’s ‘60 billion KRW savings in non-point pollution reduction facility reinstallation costs’ being selected as an excellent case of proactive administration nationwide by the Ministry of the Interior and Safety.

According to Busan City on the 13th, the non-point pollution reduction facility installed by Busan Urban Corporation in 2014 in Gijang-gun as part of the ‘Osiria Tourist Complex Development Project’ did not meet the revised manual standards during the Ministry of Environment’s environmental impact assessment re-consultation in March 2017. As a result, Busan City faced costs of approximately 6 billion KRW for reinstalling the facility.

In April last year, Busan City received this issue as a regulatory improvement task from Busan Urban Corporation and actively worked through site visits, joint public-private regulatory discovery meetings, and visits to the Office for Government Policy Coordination. As a result, they obtained an authoritative interpretation from the Ministry of Environment stating that if the purpose of reducing non-point pollution sources can be achieved by simply improving maintenance methods, reinstallation is not necessary. In December last year, the final installation report was approved, saving about 6 billion KRW in project costs.

The excellent cases of proactive administration are decided each quarter through external expert reviews of regulatory relief achievements submitted by local governments. Last month, the Ministry of the Interior and Safety selected five cases, including Busan City’s case, out of 229 nationwide as excellent cases.

Park Eunja, head of Busan City’s Regulatory Innovation Promotion Team, said, “The proactive administration of public officials should serve as a stimulus for everyone and a catalyst for regulatory innovation. We will strive to actively resolve unreasonable regulations in corporate activities and citizens’ lives.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.