<중기 Ombudsman, "Regulatory Innovation Felt by Self-Employed and SMEs in the New Year">

Jubong Park, Small and Medium Business Ombudsman. / Photo by Dongju Yoon doso7@

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Jong-hwa] Park Ju-bong, Small and Medium Business Ombudsman (vice ministerial level), stated on the 3rd, "Considering the difficulties faced by small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and small business owners related to COVID-19, we will accelerate regulatory innovation that is felt on the ground."

On this day, the SME Ombudsman announced four major focus tasks for the Year of the Black Tiger 2022 (Im In Year): △ regulatory improvements to help self-employed overcome crises, △ rationalization of overlapping regulations such as location, development, and environment, △ close communication between central and local governments, and △ maximizing efficiency of regulatory improvements through strengthened implementation inspection and recommendation functions.

Ombudsman Park said, "Due to efforts to resolve regulatory difficulties for SMEs through active on-site communication, the number of cases handled and institutional improvement examples significantly increased last year," adding, "This year, we plan to accelerate regulatory innovation that is felt on the ground by supplementing follow-up management of improvement tasks, actively responding to unaccepted proposals, and revitalizing the Ombudsman’s recommendations."

To improve regulations for overcoming the crisis of the self-employed, the SME Ombudsman will conduct on-site tailored communication targeting self-employed individuals whose survival is threatened by the COVID-19 economic crisis, and focus on identifying difficulties caused by regulations that impose excessive fixed costs and unreasonable business environments that block appropriate profits.

For rationalizing overlapping regulations such as location, development, and environment, starting this year, regulatory standards set overlappingly by zones, regions, districts, and areas will be analyzed and reviewed from a business perspective to select and identify core regulations that are mutually contradictory or excessively burdensome. Bold regulatory innovation will be promoted together with relevant agencies for core regulations such as various overlapping regulations that do not fit reality.

To ensure close communication between central and local governments, the 'Growth Ladder Forum' held last year will be further strengthened and regularized, turning it into a platform for discussions to resolve regulations that are difficult to solve through a 'top-down' approach.

In particular, since new local governments will be formed after the local elections on June 1, active consultations will be held with all 17 metropolitan and provincial governors after the elections to ensure that unreasonable regulations are identified and improved in the newly formed local governments.

The SME Ombudsman plans to strengthen the implementation inspection function and maximize the efficiency of regulatory improvements by utilizing key personnel who were in charge of various regulatory improvement tasks, promoting △ implementation inspection of improvement tasks, △ additional consultations on unaddressed tasks, and △ regular meetings of the Ombudsman Committee. For matters judged to have high validity for regulatory improvement, the Ombudsman will actively use the 'recommendation' function, one of its inherent authorities.

Ombudsman Park emphasized, "This year, we plan to conduct on-site tailored communication for the self-employed whose survival is threatened by the economic crisis due to COVID-19," adding, "We will focus on identifying and resolving difficulties caused by regulations that impose excessive fixed costs and unreasonable business environments for the self-employed."

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