4th Data Committee to Immediately Promote Opening of 'Business Registration Number' in Public Data

Follow-up Measures Initiated to Provide Unopened Core Data 'Business Registration Number'

[Asia Economy Reporter Eunmo Koo] The Presidential Committee on the Fourth Industrial Revolution announced that, as a follow-up measure to the agenda ‘Provision of Unopened Core Data I Business Registration Number’ approved at the 22nd plenary meeting of the 4th Industrial Revolution Committee, it will immediately promote the opening of data starting with leading institutions.

The leading institutions that will immediately promote the opening of business registration numbers include six organizations, such as central government ministries that have shown excellent performance in public data opening, including the Ministry of Science and ICT, Ministry of the Interior and Safety, Ministry of SMEs and Startups, and Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, as well as local governments such as Gyeonggi Province and Incheon City. In the future, if updated public data contains business registration numbers, these will be included and opened.

The business registration number is a unique identifier for companies and has been regarded as personal information or corporate secrets, thus not opened until now. However, after reviewing relevant ministries and laws such as the Personal Information Protection Act, the Information Disclosure Act, and the Framework Act on National Taxes, the 4th Industrial Revolution Committee confirmed that including business registration numbers when opening public data does not violate current laws.

Meanwhile, at the preliminary inspection meeting to promote the opening of business registration numbers, leading institutions and private experts discussed the activation of business registration number opening as follows. First, public officials still perceive business registration numbers as personal information or corporate secrets. Therefore, the 4th Industrial Revolution Committee will send official letters to each institution regarding the opening of business registration numbers, and the Ministry of the Interior and Safety plans to incorporate this into training and guidelines for officials by the end of the year so that all public data opening institutions can comply starting next year.

Additionally, after checking the data holdings of each institution, it was decided to disclose business registration numbers even if some existing data lacked them, reflecting industry opinions that disclosing business registration numbers will contribute to data utilization and the creation of new businesses.

Finally, regarding opinions that it is difficult for public data opening institutions to guarantee the authenticity of business registration numbers submitted by the private sector, private experts suggested that since there are differences in the timing of data collection, opening, and utilization, users should verify authenticity through the business registration number verification service provided by the National Tax Service or the open API service recently jointly provided by the Ministry of the Interior and Safety.

Yoon Sung-ro, a private member of the 4th Industrial Revolution Committee, stated, “The business registration number, a core data that the private sector has continuously requested but was not opened until now, is about to be made available through public data, which is very meaningful.” He added, “There is strong interest, with steady inquiries from the MyData industry and others, and we expect that the opening will expand not only to leading institutions but also to all institutions as soon as possible, leading to the emergence of new data businesses.”