Private-led 'Regulatory Adjudication Division' Sets Sail... First Test is 'Large Mart Operating Restrictions'

[Asia Economy Sejong=Reporter Kim Hyewon] The general public will engage in heated online debates starting from the 5th regarding the lifting of operating restrictions on large supermarkets, which are at a crossroads of deregulation for the first time in 10 years. Online discussions are also scheduled throughout September on topics such as improving the unmarried father birth registration system, allowing either the father or mother to register a child's birth regardless of the parents' marital status, and whether to abolish the cap on additional mobile phone subsidies.

On the 4th, the Office for Government Policy Coordination held the first Regulatory Judgment Meeting and announced on the 2nd that it would officially launch the regulatory judgment system, a new regulatory innovation framework under the Yoon Seok-yeol administration. The Regulatory Judgment Committee, composed of about 100 private experts and field activists, deliberates once more on regulations rejected by the relevant ministries and recommends improvements if deemed necessary. For each agenda item, a panel of about five regulatory judgment members, assigned according to their expertise, reviews the appropriateness of the regulation and gathers opinions from proposers, stakeholders, and ministries without restrictions on deadlines or frequency, aiming to foster mutual understanding and consensus. As a result, the regulatory judgment process now includes the stages of task reception and discovery → review by the relevant ministry → Regulatory Judgment Committee → recommendation for improvement by the Regulatory Reform Committee → strategic meeting chaired by the President.

The first test case is the regulation limiting the operating hours of large supermarkets. Given its close impact on citizens' daily lives, an online debate involving the public will be held on the Regulatory Information Portal for two weeks starting from the 5th immediately after the first meeting. The regulation restricts operating hours to between 0 and 10 a.m. and mandates two mandatory closure days per month. Opinions are divided between those advocating for abolition or relaxation to enhance consumer choice and those insisting on maintaining the regulation to protect small and medium-sized retailers and small business owners. When the Presidential Office conducted an online national vote on abolishing mandatory closure of large supermarkets for ten days starting from the 21st of last month, it received 577,415 "likes," the highest number of votes, indicating significant public support for deregulation.

If the Regulatory Judgment Committee's deliberations and the public debate also favor abolishing or relaxing the regulation, the relevant ministry will reconsider whether to accept or reject the proposal. If the ministry rejects the proposal despite recommendations from the Regulatory Reform Committee, the issue will be submitted to the Regulatory Innovation Strategy Meeting chaired by President Yoon Seok-yeol to finalize whether improvements will be made.

Other topics under review by the Regulatory Judgment Committee include whether to include seafood distribution in the industries allowed to employ foreign workers, whether to abolish the cap on additional mobile phone subsidies limited to within 15% of the disclosed subsidy by telecom operators, whether to expand the scope of semi-permanent makeup procedures to non-medical personnel, whether to broaden rental car categories to include small cargo vehicles, and whether to relax educational requirements for foreign academy instructors to university enrollment or higher. Lee Jung-won, Deputy Minister of the Office for Government Policy Coordination, said, "The first success factor of the regulatory judgment system is to listen sufficiently," adding, "We will hold meetings repeatedly until consensus is reached to support balanced outcomes."

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