Survey by Sangui Experts: "Government Regulatory Innovation, Positive Direction but Slow Pace"

KCCI, '2023 Regulatory Innovation Policy Direction'
Survey of 50 Regulatory Experts... 60% Positive
Market-Centered Goal Setting Good but Improvement Pace Slow

[Asia Economy Reporter Jeong Dong-hoon] Experts generally evaluate the current government's regulatory innovation policy positively. However, they diagnose that actual achievements are not significant due to slow institutional improvements and urge an acceleration of the pace.

According to a recent survey conducted by the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry targeting 50 regulatory experts on the '2023 Government Regulatory Innovation Policy Direction,' 6 out of 10 experts positively evaluated the government's overall regulatory innovation policy.

The most common reason for positive evaluation was that the 'regulatory innovation goal setting for market revitalization was well established (57.7%).' Next were the 'government's strong expression of will for regulatory innovation (19.2%)' and 'whole-of-government participation in regulatory innovation (11.5%),' receiving good evaluations for creating a comprehensive regulatory innovation atmosphere and setting policy directions well in the early phase of the administration.

Negative opinions included 'low perception of regulatory innovation (45.5%),' 'slow implementation speed (27.3%),' and 'lack of policy concreteness (18.2%),' pointing out that newly established regulatory innovation promotion systems such as the Regulatory Judgment System and the Regulatory Innovation Promotion Team under the current government have not produced noticeable concrete results, which is seen as a limitation.

Reflecting this, only 42% of experts positively evaluated the achievements of regulatory innovation so far. Opinions of 'deferred judgment' due to the early stage of the administration accounted for 32%, and negative evaluations made up 26%.

Professor Yang Jun-seok of Catholic University stated, "I highly appreciate the government making regulatory innovation a policy priority under the principle of guaranteeing private sector creativity and autonomy." He pointed out, "Since multiple ministries are simultaneously pushing regulatory innovation in a top-down manner, the public and companies feel low effects of regulatory innovation, and the promotional effects seem insufficient."

Urgent Regulatory Innovation Tasks in 2023: Conflict Regulation, New Industry Regulation, Bundled Regulation, Corporate Investment Regulation in Order

Experts identified conflict regulation (26.0%) as the area urgently needing regulatory improvement this year. This includes issues like large mart operating hours, non-face-to-face medical treatment, and the sharing economy, where interests between new and existing industries are sharply conflicting, making regulatory improvement difficult but no longer avoidable.

Next were new industry regulation (21.9%), where regulations fail to keep pace with technological changes causing difficulties in commercialization; bundled regulation (15.8%), where multiple ministries' regulations are intertwined; and corporate investment-related regulations (13.0%), such as various permits and approvals that hinder corporate investment.

Professor Choi Moo-hyun of Sangji University advised, "This year, due to the global economic downturn, companies are expected to face more difficulties in management than ever before. Regulatory reform needs to focus on supporting the competitiveness of our companies."

He added, "Especially in the new industry sector, where various business opportunities exist, conflicts with existing industries are intense or legal systems are insufficient, making regulatory innovation highly challenging. Therefore, it should be prioritized. Regulations hindering corporate investment should be proactively improved by the government."

Recommendations for Successful Regulatory Innovation: ‘Setting Government Core Agenda,’ ‘Establishing Conflict Resolution System,’ ‘Strengthening Public-Private Cooperation,’ etc.

The top five policy tasks for successful regulatory innovation under the Yoon Seok-yeol administration were ▲setting a core government agenda ▲establishing a stakeholder conflict resolution system ▲strengthening public-private cooperation ▲reorganizing the regulatory innovation promotion system ▲improving civil servant behavior.

Experts advised that the government needs to set core regulatory innovation agendas from a long-term perspective and strategically design the regulatory innovation system and tasks based on them. While discovering regulatory innovation tasks based on individual company requests may be effective in resolving field difficulties, it has limitations in achieving the goal of comprehensive regulatory environment improvement.

Even if conflicts among stakeholders such as existing and new industries or large and small businesses are intense, there was a common opinion that the government should more actively operate a conflict resolution system to mediate and arbitrate tasks with high necessity for economic development.

Additionally, it was pointed out that the private sector should not remain merely as a simple requester but actively participate in the regulatory innovation process to strengthen public-private cooperation. In particular, it was explained that more channels like consultative bodies where companies and ministries can directly discuss specific regulations need to be operated.

Furthermore, it is necessary to conduct external consulting and internal evaluations on the government's regulatory innovation promotion system to reorganize it more efficiently, and to establish systems such as incentives and strengthened exemption for proactive administration to improve the behavior of civil servants who are the main agents of regulatory innovation.

Professor Kim Sung-joon of Kyungpook National University emphasized, "Regulatory innovation has often been regarded as a privilege for specific companies, failing to gain public support and eventually fading away. For the government's regulatory innovation to succeed, there must be consensus that the goal of regulatory innovation is Korea's economic growth through strengthening corporate competitiveness and that the beneficiaries are ultimately all citizens."

Kang Seok-gu, head of the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry's Research Division, said, "It is positive that the current government has shown a comprehensive will for regulatory innovation across all ministries since its inauguration. However, since institutional improvements take time, there seemed to be some gap with the private sector's expectations for rapid improvements." He added, "As the government announced continuous regulatory innovation plans this year, including support for corporate investment through regulatory innovation, practical achievements in institutional improvements are expected."

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