Seoul to Identify 100 Regulatory Barriers in Emerging Industries... Launches 'Regulatory Innovation Free Pass'

On-Site Roundtable at Newbility Headquarters in Seongsu-dong
Participation from Autonomous Driving, AI Healthcare, and Car-Sharing Companies
Strengthening City-SBA and Legal Expert Collaboration System

The Seoul Metropolitan Government is accelerating efforts to identify and address regulations in order to expand emerging industries such as autonomous robots, artificial intelligence (AI) healthcare, and car-sharing services.

On March 11, the city announced that it will identify 100 regulatory issues this year, focusing on eight core areas of new industries, and support everything from pilot demonstrations to commercialization through the establishment of the “Seoul-Style Regulatory Innovation Free Pass” system.

Yonhap News Agency

This initiative was launched to address gaps in the system and shortcomings in legislation that companies face when releasing new technologies or services. The goal is to help innovative services reach the market more quickly.

To this end, the city plans to leverage key industrial hubs such as Yeouido (fintech), Yangjae (AI), and Hongneung (bio) as “regulatory innovation hubs” to proactively identify regulatory challenges encountered by companies on the ground.

In particular, to ease the difficulties companies experience in resolving regulatory issues, the city will operate the “Seoul-Style Regulatory Innovation Free Pass” system, which encompasses regulatory identification, provision of public demonstration spaces, recommendations for government regulatory improvements, and support for commercialization. This integrated support approach enables companies to receive assistance with administrative procedures and regulatory compliance from the testing of new technologies all the way to market launch.

Additionally, a new “Global Track” will be introduced to assist companies that are unable to launch their services domestically due to regulatory constraints. This system allows companies to first test their technologies or services overseas and enter foreign markets, and then use those results to advocate for regulatory improvements within Korea.

As part of these regulatory innovation policies, at 2:00 p.m. on March 11, the city held an on-site regulatory sandbox roundtable at the headquarters of Newbility, an autonomous robot company located in Seongsu-dong, Seongdong District. The event was attended by Kim Byungmin, Deputy Mayor for Political Affairs of the Seoul Metropolitan Government, along with representatives from eight innovative companies in various fields including autonomous robots, AI healthcare, pet biometric identification, and car-sharing services, as well as legal experts from the Regulatory Innovation Support Team. Participants discussed regulatory obstacles encountered in the field and potential solutions for improvement.

The city stated that it will continue to submit the regulatory challenges and requests for legislative amendments raised during the roundtable to the central government. In addition, Seoul plans to establish a “Seoul-Style Regulatory Innovation System” to support companies’ market entry and strengthen end-to-end support from pilot demonstration to commercialization. Kim Byungmin, Deputy Mayor for Political Affairs, said, “If new technologies emerge but the system fails to keep up, innovation inevitably comes to a halt. Seoul will be a partner throughout all stages—from identifying regulations to pilot demonstrations and commercialization—so that companies do not face difficulties entering the market due to regulatory barriers.”

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