Gwangyang-si Wins 'Minister of the Interior and Safety Award' at Local Regulatory Innovation Competition

Institutional Improvements to Attract New Industries to National Industrial Complexes

Gwangyang City in Jeonnam announced that it won the Minister of the Interior and Safety Award at the ‘2023 Local Regulatory Innovation Best Practices Competition’ held on the 17th at KINTEX in Goyang for the project titled ‘Institutional Improvement for Attracting New Industries to Gwangyang National Industrial Complex.’

The ‘Local Regulatory Innovation Best Practices Competition’ has been held annually since 2018 with participation from cities and provinces nationwide. It aims to promote local regulatory innovation and resolve public inconveniences by spreading and expanding best practices in areas such as resolving corporate difficulties, revitalizing the local economy, and solving daily life inconveniences.

[Photo provided by Gwangyang-si]

In this competition, a total of 88 cases were submitted from 17 cities and provinces nationwide. After a document review, the top 17 cases (1 grand prize, 2 excellence awards, 7 merit awards, and 7 encouragement awards) were selected as best practices. Gwangyang City received an encouragement award along with a commendation from the Ministry of the Interior and Safety.

The project submitted by Gwangyang City, ‘Institutional Improvement for Attracting New Industries to Gwangyang National Industrial Complex,’ is an excellent case of easing regulations on new industry investment faced by the region and companies.

The Gwangyang National Industrial Complex had been preparing for new industry investments such as hydrogen reduction steelmaking, secondary batteries, and hydrogen industries, but faced difficulties as investments were not allowed under current laws and regulations.

Accordingly, since August last year, Gwangyang City repeatedly proposed institutional improvements to related ministries. This included a meeting chaired by the Second Vice Minister of the Office for Government Policy Coordination in February this year, a site visit by the Prime Minister in April, and the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy’s announcement of a plan to eliminate killer regulations on industrial complex locations in September. The government cooperated to resolve these issues, and finally, the revision of the enforcement decree was completed in October after the Cabinet meeting.

This legal amendment is significant as it laid the foundation for the full-scale investment of new industries in the Gwangyang National Industrial Complex. Over the next 10 years, it is expected to attract investments exceeding 4 trillion won in advanced industries and revitalize the local economy.

Jung In-hwa, Mayor of Gwangyang City, said, “Taking this award at the Local Regulatory Innovation Competition as an opportunity, we will discover regulations that can improve corporate difficulties and citizen inconveniences and devote all efforts to making Gwangyang a better city to live in.”

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