Ministry of the Interior and Safety Selects 5 Outstanding Cases of Active Deregulation... Transparent Pet Medical Fees and Safe Traffic Signs Included

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Cheol-young] The Ministry of the Interior and Safety announced on the 4th that it has selected five outstanding cases of regulatory relief that have enhanced resident convenience and revitalized the local economy through proactive and creative work initiatives.

The Ministry evaluates cases where local governments have overcome unreasonable administrative practices or regulations on a quarterly basis, selects outstanding cases, and reflects them in joint evaluations of local governments to ensure sharing and dissemination to all local governments.

In the fourth quarter of last year, 17 cities and provinces submitted a total of 388 cases of regulatory relief, from which 43 performance cases were selected, and after practical and external expert reviews, five were finally chosen.

In the ‘Educational Environment Protection Zone,’ medical waste treatment facilities could not be installed, forcing hospitals located in the zone to use distant incineration facilities, resulting in excessive treatment costs and infection risks during transportation. In response, Anyang City in Gyeonggi Province operated a pilot project (regulatory sandbox) allowing hospitals within the educational environment protection zone to have medical waste treatment facilities, and achieved the revision of the Enforcement Decree of the Educational Environment Act through continuous regulatory improvement proposals to the Ministry of Education.

Veterinary hospitals lacked standardized treatment fee criteria, and there were large discrepancies in fees between hospitals, causing consumer dissatisfaction. Accordingly, Gyeongsangnam-do formed the ‘Gyeongnam Pet Medical Fee Burden Reduction Task Force (TF),’ conducted expert meetings and citizen proposals, derived improvement tasks such as the ‘voluntary display system for treatment fees,’ and enacted the Gyeongsangnam-do Ordinance on Support for Reducing the Burden of Pet Medical Fees, including these measures.

Other outstanding cases included ▲ installation and utilization of ‘safety-type traffic signs’ suitable for narrow roads in Hapcheon County, Gyeongsangnam-do ▲ establishment of a distribution system for agricultural products produced by small-scale farms in Muju County, Jeonbuk ▲ and promotion of resident-led solar power projects in Yeonggwang County, Jeonnam, leading to increased resident income.

Park Jae-min, Director of the Local Finance and Economy Office at the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, said, “Despite the difficult conditions due to the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic, the regulatory relief efforts of each local government have greatly helped alleviate residents’ inconveniences and revitalize the local economy. We will continue to discover proactive regulatory reform cases and strive to spread them to other local governments.”

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