Reviewing Allowance of Up to 16t for Large Vehicle Replacement and General Transport Operators

Mid-sized Ombudsman Holds First Joint Meeting with Secretary for Government Policy Coordination and Mayor of Incheon

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

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Jong-hwa] The government has decided to consider easing regulations on the maximum load capacity for 'large replacement vehicles' (daepaecha), where freight transport vehicle owners replace only the vehicle while keeping the commercial license plate. The current limit of 10 tons for general transport operators may be raised to 16 tons, similar to the standard for individual transport operators.

On the 28th, the Small and Medium Business Ombudsman held a 'Local-Central Joint Meeting' with the Director of the Office for Government Policy Coordination and the Mayor of Incheon to listen to various regulatory improvement proposals from local small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The meeting was attended by Incheon Mayor Yoo Jeong-bok, Director Bang Moon-gyu of the Office for Government Policy Coordination, and local SMEs at Cellreturn Co., Ltd. in Namdong National Industrial Complex, Incheon.

As of 2020, Incheon has about 377,000 small and medium manufacturing companies and 888,000 workers, achieving export performance of 7.49 billion dollars.

The SMEs attending the meeting raised various suggestions regarding policy support and business locations. Na Soon-ok, director of the Namdong Industrial Supplies Shopping Mall Business Cooperative, requested improvements, saying, "Various garbage and illegal deposits near Namdong Induspark Station are left unattended, making passage difficult and raising concerns about becoming a high-crime area." Oh Jong-du, CEO of Hanla Cast Co., Ltd., requested, "Please extend the Small and Medium Business Promotion Fund (Structural Advancement Fund), which is currently available only for factory expansions within existing sites, to also support new construction or expansion on adjacent sites."

Kim Jae-sik, secretary-general of the Incheon Chamber of Commerce and Industry, stated, "Individual medium-sized freight vehicle operators can perform large replacement vehicles up to a maximum load of 16 tons, but general transport operators are only allowed up to 10 tons, which is unfair." He requested easing the tonnage regulations for general transport operators during large vehicle replacements. In response, a Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport official said, "Considering that the business types of individuals and general transport operators are similar and there are limitations in supplying vehicles by tonnage according to market demand, we will consider easing the tonnage regulations for general operators in the mid to long term."

Other proposals included expanding the scale of the Factory F&B project (small-scale living convenience facility project) under the structural advancement project, establishing a dedicated organization within Incheon Metropolitan City Hall to oversee industrial complex-related affairs, suspending parking enforcement within industrial complexes, expanding eligibility for the Youth Tomorrow Savings Program to companies with fewer than five employees, improving the 52-hour workweek system, and allowing overlapping national funding for environmental structural advancement projects in industrial complexes.

Incheon Mayor Yoo Jeong-bok said, "We will continue to communicate and support businesses on-site to make Incheon a good place to do business and work." Director Bang Moon-gyu of the Office for Government Policy Coordination promised, "We will continue to listen to the diverse voices calling for regulatory innovation on the ground and make greater efforts to ensure unnecessary regulations are improved."

Deputy Minister-level Ombudsman Park Joo-bong said, "I hope the sandbags that have been tied to the ankles of SMEs will be removed," adding, "Through this, I hope SMEs will develop into mid-sized and large companies and become the backbone of the Korean economy."

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