First, Regulations... 7 out of 10 ICT Bills in the 20th National Assembly Are 'Regulations'

[Asia Economy Reporter Seulgina Jo] Among the 10 ICT-related bills proposed in the 20th National Assembly, more than 7 were confirmed to be regulatory bills.

According to the Legislative Studies Center at Gyeongin National University of Education on the 21st, a total of 1,044 bills were proposed to the 20th National Assembly's Science, Technology, Information and Broadcasting and Communications Committee (STIBC), which is a 34% increase compared to the 19th National Assembly's Future Creation Science and Broadcasting and Communications Committee (current STIBC). However, the bill approval rate during this period decreased from 19% to 13%.

It was confirmed that 815 ICT-related bills were proposed in the 20th National Assembly. Among these, 73% were identified as regulatory in nature. Shim Woo-min, head of the Legislative Studies Center at Gyeongin National University of Education, explained, "92% are member-initiated bills, and if you add bills proposed by each standing committee chairperson, 97% are member-initiated bills." However, 69% of these bills were discarded without even being discussed.

At a related seminar held on the 18th, Director Shim pointed out, "Although regulatory-focused bills are being proposed in the National Assembly, actual deliberation is not taking place." Additionally, 97% of ICT bills were found to remain in the relevant committee and subcommittee for extended periods.

This inevitably invites criticism that the National Assembly is indiscriminately proposing regulations without analyzing the necessity and effectiveness of legislation. The lack of legislative expertise was also pointed out as a problem.

For example, during the 19th and 20th National Assemblies, as the fake news issue grew, related bills poured in, but there were no bills that derived and analyzed empirical evidence on why fake news is problematic. In fact, effective regulations that could prevent concerning incidents through such bills, like the n-bang prevention law which cannot regulate Telegram, were not implemented. This leads to overregulation, which inevitably becomes an obstacle to innovation and growth across the industry.

According to a survey conducted by the Legislative Studies Center targeting a panel of 30 experts, ICT legislation in the 20th National Assembly scored only 46 out of 100 points. The best bill was the abolition of the public certification system, and the worst bill was the amendment to the Passenger Transport Service Act, known as the 'Tada Prohibition Act.'

Director Shim stated, “Instead of simply advocating for a ‘working National Assembly,’ we need to establish a ‘system that can work,’” urging the institutionalization of ‘legislative impact assessment’ and seeking more objective and systematic legislative alternatives through stakeholder opinion gathering and disclosure of results.

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