Regulatory Innovation Including Easing Establishment Requirements for Small and Medium Enterprise Cooperatives

Medium Enterprise Ombudsman to Improve Environmental Label Certification and Procurement Inspection
Choi Seungjae "Systematizing Collaboration with Ministry of Economy and Finance, Efforts for Regulatory Innovation"

The minimum number of promoters required to establish a small and medium-sized enterprise cooperative has been lowered, and when making toilet paper from raw paper certified with an environmental label, it is no longer necessary to obtain a separate environmental label certification.

On the 4th, the government held the 24th Economic Relations Ministers' Meeting chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Choi Sang-mok and announced the "Economic Regulation Innovation Plan to Enhance Corporate Dynamism and Promote New Industries," which includes these measures, in coordination with related ministries.

The innovation plan, led by the Ministry of Economy and Finance, collected over 300 field suggestions from business cooperatives and organizations such as the Korea Federation of SMEs, and improved regulations on 36 major tasks in three key areas: resolving difficulties for small business owners and SMEs, fostering core and new industries, and revitalizing investment, with collaboration from the Office for Government Policy Coordination, the SME Ombudsman, and relevant ministries.

The SME Ombudsman participated in preparing the innovation plan mainly based on the top 100 field regulations suggested by the Korea Federation of SMEs, and to ensure substantial regulatory improvements, held a joint meeting with the Korea Federation of SMEs on the 19th of last month.

Among the 11 tasks involving the SME Ombudsman, a representative example is lowering the minimum number of promoters required to establish a small and medium-sized enterprise cooperative to promote cooperative activation.

The minimum number of promoters required to establish a small and medium-sized enterprise cooperative, which has been continuously raised in the field, was lowered from 50 to 30 for nationwide cooperatives (wholesale and retail from 70 to 50), and from 30 to 20 for local cooperatives (wholesale and retail from 50 to 30).

Previously, when manufacturing toilet paper by simply cutting raw paper that had received environmental label certification, separate environmental label certification was required. However, if the raw paper has environmental label certification, the toilet paper is now certified without separate inspection.

Considering that the inspection period by procurement specialized agencies for stone products, which are raw materials such as natural stone curbstones that are cut and surface-processed, can take up to about 20 days and cost up to 1 million KRW per item, placing a heavy burden on companies, and that the inspection's practical benefits are low, stone products will be excluded from procurement specialized agency inspections.

Choi Seung-jae, the SME Ombudsman, said, "As in the past when the SME Ombudsman and the Ministry of Economy and Finance jointly prepared a series of corporate environment improvement measures and field-oriented regulatory innovation plans, we will actively collaborate with the Ministry of Economy and Finance and others to further enhance synergy and strive for regulatory innovation for small and medium-sized enterprises and mid-sized companies."

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