"Reform Mid-Sized Business Regulations"... Mid-Sized Business Community Meets Prime Minister

Prime Minister Han Duck-soo and Related Ministers and Vice Ministers Hold On-site Discussion with Over 130 Small Business Owners
Korea Federation of SMEs Delivers 'SME Regulatory Reform Taskbook' Containing 229 Cases in 11 Areas

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kwak Minjae] Kim Gi-moon, chairman of the Korea Federation of Small and Medium Business (Kbiz), met with Prime Minister Han Duck-soo on the 17th and urged the prompt resolution of representative SME regulations such as the ‘industrial complex residency issue’ and the ‘foreign workforce quota issue.’

On the same day, Chairman Kim attended the ‘SME Regulatory Reform Grand Debate’ held at the Kbiz headquarters in Yeouido, Seoul, with Prime Minister Han. This debate was organized to identify and improve regulations that hinder job creation and investment activation in SMEs. Prior to the debate, all executives and staff of Kbiz delivered to the government a ‘SME Regulatory Reform Taskbook’ containing 229 cases found during visits to SME sites nationwide over the past two months.

Chairman Kim stated, "Although the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy has recently activated the ‘negative’ regulation method in industrial complexes, resolving many important issues, there are still insufficient parts in local industrial complexes." He added, "In the Mieum Industrial Complex in Busan, where wind power component companies are located, a warehouse company that performs special packaging cannot move in, causing the inconvenience of transporting goods 8 km away to the Noksan Industrial Complex for packaging and then shipping them to the export port."

Chairman Kim also suggested, "The government recently decided to allow 10,000 foreign workers to enter monthly, but the shortage of manpower in SMEs reaches 600,000, so the reality is still insufficient. The overall foreign workforce quota and the employment limit per company should be boldly relaxed to fit the reality and promptly solve the manpower problem of SMEs."

During the debate, field suggestions were made on 12 regulations across 8 areas, including ▲environmental regulations (relaxation of excessive LED lighting recycling obligation rates), ▲location regulations (improvement of overlapping regulations in the northern Gyeonggi region, where the regulated area is 1.6 times larger than the entire administrative district), ▲certification regulations (environmental label certification, which is voluntary but practically used as mandatory certification by local governments and public institutions), and ▲reporting and labeling regulations (medical device supply reporting system requiring reports even for low-risk medical devices such as glasses, bandages, and thermometers).

Chairman Kim said, "SMEs have lower regulatory response capabilities than large corporations and lack channels to convey field voices, causing difficulties. Today, we delivered 229 SME field regulatory reform tasks, and we will continue to discover field regulations and actively communicate with the government."

Attending the debate were Chairman Kim, Prime Minister Han, ▲Lee Young, Minister of SMEs and Startups, ▲Bang Moon-kyu, Director of the Office for Government Policy Coordination, ▲Yoo Je-cheol, Vice Minister of Environment, ▲Lee Won-jae, Vice Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, ▲Kwon Oh-sang, Vice Minister of the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, ▲Lee Hyun-jae, Mayor of Hanam, and heads of regulatory-related departments from the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, Ministry of Employment and Labor, National Tax Service, among others. More than 130 people, including heads of SME-related organizations and chairpersons of industry-specific cooperatives, also attended.

Meanwhile, as a side event of the debate, on-site booths participated by regulatory-related ministries (Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, Ministry of Environment, Ministry of Employment and Labor, Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, Ministry of SMEs and Startups) were installed and operated, and on-site consultations were held for about 20 pre-registered regulations.