[Yoon Seok-yeol Elected] Semiconductor '50 Trillion+a' and Energy Transition Support Expansion... Urgent Need to Improve Serious Accident Punishment Act

Prospects for Industrial Policy After the Presidential Election
Achieving a 'Semiconductor Superpower'
Support for New and Key Industries

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporters Oh Hyung-gil, Choi Dae-yeol] With Yoon Seok-yeol, the People Power Party candidate, winning the 20th presidential election, the business community expects a boost in creating a business-friendly environment and growth support. Since President-elect Yoon has also emphasized digital transformation and energy transition as key pledges, national-level innovation support is anticipated.

According to the business community on the 10th, President-elect Yoon proposed major industrial pledges such as establishing a ‘50 trillion won + a’ Koma Tech Fund and fostering regional industrial clusters. The Koma Tech Fund is a public-private semiconductor fund, with 50 trillion won from the government and contributions from semiconductor companies to focus on nurturing fabless and foundry sectors.

In response to the global semiconductor supremacy competition, the plan includes expanding tax credits for research and development (R&D) and facility investments, training 100,000 technical personnel, and supporting infrastructure for electricity and industrial water to build a ‘semiconductor superpower.’

Tax support expansion is also planned for future growth industries such as future cars, secondary batteries, and biotechnology, and government-level investment support is expected to increase in energy sectors including nuclear power, batteries, solar power, and hydrogen technologies.

The expansion of electric vehicle adoption is also expected to continue steadily under the new administration. President-elect Yoon stated, "We will make it easy to charge electric vehicles even at neighborhood gas stations," and plans to revise current regulations. Under the Hazardous Materials Safety Control Act, installing electric vehicle chargers at gas stations requires a certain distance from fuel pumps. The People Power Party has also pledged to freeze charging fees for five years to increase electric vehicle adoption.

The Discussion on the Improvement of the Serious Accidents Punishment Act was held on the 11th at the Korea Employers Federation in Mapo-gu, Seoul. There was a claim that supplementary legislation should be prioritized to minimize the side effects following the enforcement of the Serious Accidents Punishment Act. Photo by Moon Honam munonam@

Expectations for deregulation are particularly high.

During the election period, President-elect Yoon pledged to immediately abolish about 80 regulations that have restricted corporate activities and to reform the regulatory system with a minimum regulation approach (negative regulation). Although the list of regulations to be abolished has not been disclosed, it is expected to include those pointed out by economic organizations as obstacles to corporate growth and investment activities.

On December 16 last year, President-elect Yoon met with Choi Tae-won, Chairman of the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Chairman of SK Group), and said, "I intend to achieve comprehensive regulatory reform," adding, "Unless it concerns public safety in all fields, I will thoroughly change the system to negative regulation."

Attention is focused on whether the Serious Accident Punishment Act, which is legally ambiguous, will be improved. In the ‘2022 Corporate Regulation Outlook Survey’ conducted by the Korea Employers Federation, eight industries including semiconductors, steel, shipbuilding and shipping, and construction identified the Serious Accident Punishment Act as the most burdensome regulation.

President-elect Yoon also pointed out during the presidential debate, "The conditions for detention under the Serious Accident Punishment Act are ambiguous," and "There could be various legal issues when criminal prosecution occurs." Although he intends to amend enforcement ordinances rather than the law itself in a situation where the ruling party has a minority, the business community points out that this approach has limitations.

Jeon Seung-tae, head of the Industrial Safety and Health Team at the Korea Employers Federation, said, "The obligations of management responsibility need to be clarified, and the level of punishment for managers should be lowered," adding, "It is also necessary to discuss limiting the scope of investigations to obligations directly related to the cause of accidents to prevent excessive investigations."

As part of small and medium-sized enterprise policies, flexibilization of the current 52-hour workweek system is also expected. The pledge is to expand the unit period of extended and flexible working hours to a monthly basis or longer, based on agreement between employers and workers, maintaining total working hours while allowing flexible responses to workload fluctuations.

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