28 Specialized Construction Sectors Reduced to 14... "Promoting Fair Competition"

[Asia Economy Reporter Moon Jiwon] The government is promoting the integration of construction industry sectors to foster fair competition within the construction industry.

On the 15th, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport announced that it will give public notice of subordinate legislation, including the Enforcement Decree of the Framework Act on the Construction Industry, centered on this content.

According to the Ministry, the current 28 specialized construction sectors will be consolidated into 14 major sectors starting in 2022, comprehensively considering interrelations between work types, convenience for clients, and practical conditions.

The purpose is to expand the scope of work for each specialized construction sector to facilitate winning general construction contracts more easily, thereby establishing a competitive structure based on construction capability.

Previously, the government announced the abolition of sectoral barriers between general construction and specialized construction industries.

After completing the revision of laws by next year, guidelines for ordering will be prepared, applying to public construction projects in 2022 and to all projects including private construction in 2023.

Additionally, the Ministry will introduce a "Main Field Disclosure System" to enable clients to conveniently verify the specialized construction fields of construction companies through objective performance data and select companies accordingly.

Clients will be able to select companies with the expertise and technical skills that meet the required standards related to the performance and form of structures, while construction companies will have opportunities to be properly evaluated on their achievements and capabilities and to grow.

At the initial stage of the Main Field Disclosure System, it will operate with the current sector system of 28 categories, but after research next year, it will be subdivided starting in 2022.

Also, the "Facility Maintenance Industry," which has belonged to complex work types, will be converted into either general or specialized construction companies.

Existing businesses can voluntarily choose three specialized construction major sectors (integrated sectors) or convert entirely to general construction (civil engineering or architecture) from 2022 to 2023. However, after January 2024, all will be automatically converted to one specialized major sector.

To ease the burden on facility maintenance companies during the sector conversion process, the obligation to meet registration standards such as additional capital and possession of technical personnel will be exempted until the end of 2026.

Protection for small-scale companies will be further strengthened during the sector conversion of the facility maintenance industry.

For small-scale construction, a small-scale maintenance construction project will be introduced that only allows participation by small-scale companies below a certain construction capability evaluation amount, and small-scale companies will be granted an additional three-year exemption from the obligation to meet registration standards such as additional capital and technical personnel until the end of 2029.

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport explained, "We plan to steadily prepare pilot projects, ordering guidelines, and a performance management system for maintenance fields before the implementation of the major sector integration in 2022."

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