Allowing Convenience Stores Inside Hydrogen Charging Stations... 35 New Industry Regulatory Innovations Resolved

Ulsan Gyeongdong Hydrogen Charging Station

[Asia Economy Reporter Kwangho Lee] From now on, the installation of commercial facilities such as convenience stores within hydrogen charging stations will be permitted. Additionally, the drone certification reception desk will be unified, and the manufacturing approval process for artificial blood vessels (stents) will be improved.

On the 3rd, the government held a National Policy Issue Inspection and Coordination Meeting chaired by Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun at the Government Seoul Office, where they discussed and finalized the "New Industry On-site Regulatory Innovation Plan (5th phase)" containing these details.

To innovate regulations for new industries, the government has introduced a new system of "prior approval - subsequent regulation" and has been focusing on four main directions: implementing regulatory sandboxes, transitioning to comprehensive negative regulation, establishing a proactive regulatory reform roadmap, and innovating on-site regulatory difficulties.

This time, 35 additional on-site regulatory difficulties in the fields of hydrogen economy and new renewable energy, drones and ICT convergence, and biohealth will be improved.

Despite resolving on-site difficulties four times previously, improvements have been made focusing on newly raised issues or those that were inadequately addressed before.

The main improvement tasks include ▲allowing convenience stores inside hydrogen charging stations ▲adding fuel cells to emergency power sources for fire-fighting equipment ▲simplifying drone certification procedures ▲activating the priority review system for bio new drugs, among others.

Among the 35 tasks resolved this time, 7 have been completed, and the remaining 28 will be sequentially organized considering legislative conditions.

In the hydrogen economy sector, 8 tasks such as easing operational burdens of hydrogen charging stations and relaxing location restrictions will be addressed; in the new renewable energy sector, 7 tasks including adding fuel cells to emergency power sources for fire-fighting equipment and promoting commercialization of new types of fuel cells; in the drone and ICT sector, 5 tasks such as improving administrative procedures for drones and AI speakers; and in the biohealth sector, 15 tasks including rationalizing approval procedures for medical devices and new drugs will be resolved.

An official from the Office for Government Policy Coordination emphasized, "For tasks requiring follow-up measures such as legal amendments after this announcement, we will promptly proceed so that companies and citizens can quickly feel the effects."

He also stated, "We will thoroughly explain the improvements to related companies, associations, and organizations that directly participated in the discussion of on-site difficulties, and ensure communication and promotion with the new industry field so that the information can be shared even with individual companies without any disruption."

Furthermore, he added, "We will continue to discover and improve new industry on-site difficulties under the principle of 'immediate resolution,' and especially plan to simultaneously discover and improve on-site difficulties related to post-COVID-19 response in new industries."