Significant Improvement of 'Jibang Jaejeong Investment Review' to Overcome COVID-19

Ministry of the Interior and Safety Simplifies Investment Review for School Complex Facilities, Expands Regular Reviews, and Eases Reassessment Criteria

[Asia Economy Reporter Jo In-kyung] The Ministry of the Interior and Safety has decided to significantly improve the large-scale local investment review procedures to facilitate the rapid recovery of regional economies stagnated by the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19).

The Ministry of the Interior and Safety will first collaborate with the Ministry of Education to simplify the investment review procedures for school complex facilities starting next month. Until now, for school complex facilities, there was procedural inefficiency as local governments and education offices each had to undergo investment reviews from both the Ministry of the Interior and Safety and the Ministry of Education for a single project.

Accordingly, the Ministry of the Interior and Safety and the Ministry of Education have established a joint investment review committee and improved the process to a joint review method, which will reduce the procedure duration by about three months.

Furthermore, the feasibility study of projects, which was previously conducted separately by specialized institutions such as the Korea Institute of Local Administration and Korea National University of Education, will now be jointly conducted, shortening the investigation period by more than six months.

The Ministry of the Interior and Safety is also pushing for the revision of the 'Local Fiscal Investment Project Review Rules,' focusing on easing local investment review standards and expanding regular reviews. Currently, if three years pass after the investment review due to land compensation, detailed design, and various administrative procedures, the investment review must be conducted again; this period will be relaxed to four years.

When issuing local bonds after the investment review, the scope exempt from investment review will be expanded from 40% to 50% of self-generated revenue.

Additionally, investment reviews will be exempted for 'steep slope collapse risk area maintenance projects' for disaster prevention and preliminary feasibility exemption projects approved by the State Council, while existing exemption projects will be systematically organized.

The amendment will be announced for legislative notice until the 17th of next month, and after review by the Office for Government Policy Coordination, it will be implemented starting in July.

Ko Gyu-chang, Director of the Local Finance and Economy Office at the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, said, "Through this institutional improvement, large-scale investment projects by local governments will find a way forward, contributing to the rapid recovery of regional economies stagnated due to COVID-19."

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