Local Architecture Committee Review to be Held Within 30 Days...Significant Reduction in Corporate Inconvenience and Burden

Medium-sized Enterprise Ombudsman Improves 1,822 Committee Regulations Misaligned with Business Reality
Expected Annual Regulatory Compliance Cost Reduction of 529.5 Billion KRW

Jubong Park, Small and Medium Business Ombudsman (Vice Minister level).
[Photo by Small and Medium Business Ombudsman]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Jong-hwa] The maximum holding period for local architectural committee reviews will be specified in ordinances to ensure that reviews are completed within 30 days, thereby reducing the implementation period. Additionally, reviews by the National Research Facilities and Equipment Review Committee for projects under 300 million KRW will be simplified through written procedures.

In this way, the review targets, standards, procedures, and unreasonable practices of over 6,000 committees operated by the government and local governments will be improved, alleviating inconveniences and burdens for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Through this, a total of 1,822 regulations across various committees will be improved, and it is expected to save 529.5 billion KRW annually in regulatory compliance costs.

The Ministry of SMEs and Startups and the SME Ombudsman (at the vice-ministerial level) announced these contents of the "Committee System Improvement Plan to Resolve SME Difficulties" at the 140th National Policy Coordination Meeting on the 6th.

This government improvement plan was prepared in response to many SMEs expressing burdens and dissatisfaction with the coordination of interests, permits, approvals, and reviews conducted by various committees, which were even pointed out as obstacles to corporate investment and growth.

First, the review targets of various committees that cause unnecessary or excessive burdens, not aligned with business realities, were rationalized. When changing the Landscape Committee review for development projects, the scope of building height and floor area ratio increases was set to expand the exemption targets for change reviews, and the reduction of review targets under the Building Act for local architectural committees was reflected in the ordinances of 118 local governments.

The maximum holding period for local architectural committee reviews was specified in ordinances to ensure reviews are completed within 30 days, reducing the implementation period. Reviews by the National Research Facilities and Equipment Review Committee for projects under 300 million KRW will be conducted in writing, and the number of review items was reduced from six to three.

During the committee review process, opinions conflicting with those of other committees will no longer be adopted as official opinions. Additionally, the selection method of members for proposal evaluation committees, evaluation methods, standards, and detailed criteria for negotiated contracts, which were institutionally insufficient, will be separately established by each agency.

The SME Ombudsman analyzed and diagnosed the operation status and conditions of committees based on field opinions from companies, resulting in improvements to 554 regulations across 12 tasks, and it is expected to reduce regulatory compliance costs by approximately 103.1 billion KRW.

Park Ju-bong, SME Ombudsman, said, "While the committee system has many advantages, it has also been a burden for SMEs. We will actively raise issues with relevant ministries and local governments to ensure that the committee system does not hinder business activities on the ground, and work together to devise regulatory alternatives."

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