President Yoon Establishes 'Regulatory Innovation Strategy Meeting' Directly Under Office... Regulatory Innovation Task Force Formed with Retired Public Officials

[Asia Economy Sejong=Reporter Kim Hyewon] The Yoon Seok-yeol administration is establishing a Regulatory Innovation Strategy Meeting. It will serve as the highest decision-making body for regulatory innovation, chaired by President Yoon Seok-yeol. A Regulatory Innovation Promotion Team, consisting of 200 members including retired public officials and led by Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, will also be newly launched. The existing regulatory sandbox will be reorganized into a ‘Regulatory Sandbox Plus,’ and the transition to negative regulation will be expanded.

On the 14th, Prime Minister Han Duck-soo announced the ‘New Government Regulatory Innovation Promotion Direction’ at the Government Complex Sejong. Prime Minister Han stated, "There have been limitations in feeling the results of regulatory reform on the ground, due to insufficient active efforts to improve regulations from the perspective of the regulated parties, as well as improvements in large-scale regulations that significantly affect corporate activities," adding, "The Yoon administration will create a free market economy through strong and comprehensive regulatory innovation."

The Regulatory Innovation Strategy Meeting will be used as a channel where President Yoon presides over meetings and makes swift decisions on important matters. The Regulatory Innovation Promotion Team, jointly operated by the public, private, and research sectors?including 150 retired public officials and 50 members from research institutions and economic organizations?plans to thoroughly review and prepare improvement plans for large-scale regulations that are difficult for a single ministry to handle. Prime Minister Han described it as "an organization that consolidates policy experience, expertise, and field knowledge." The Regulatory Innovation Task Force (TF), established in 37 government ministries, and the Regulatory Innovation Promotion Team will closely collaborate to discover regulatory innovation tasks.

A regulatory adjudication system will also be introduced to improve regulations from the perspective of the regulated parties and the field. Moving away from the current method where the relevant ministry decides whether to accept regulatory complaints from companies and citizens, the new government plans to appoint private experts in each field as regulatory adjudicators to prepare neutral and balanced recommendations for regulatory improvement. Regulatory adjudicators will assess the appropriateness of regulations based on international standards, stakeholder and ministry consultations, and if the relevant ministry fails to prove the necessity or validity of a regulation, the regulation will be abolished or improved.

The regulatory innovation platform, reorganized into Regulatory Sandbox Plus, aims to resolve delayed regulatory improvements caused by conflicts of interest in new industry sectors through policy experiments involving private experts. To ensure swift deliberation, a deadline of 90 days will be set, and the establishment and notification of legal amendment plans will be made mandatory.

The transition to negative regulation will be led by the Office for Government Policy Coordination, which will prepare guidelines containing principles and methods for negative regulation, and each ministry will conduct a comprehensive review of their relevant laws and reorganize them accordingly. Prime Minister Han said, "We will expand the scope of important regulations subject to in-depth review and adjust existing regulations equivalent to twice the regulatory costs incurred by newly established or strengthened regulations." This means promoting a ‘one-in, two-out’ system. He added, "We will set a three-year review period for all regulations related to economic activities and jobs, and upon expiration, we will thoroughly manage post-review by abolishing or improving unreasonable regulations based on regulatory impact analysis."

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