The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport announced on the 27th that it will operate the 'Smart City Regulatory Sandbox One-Stop Pre-Consulting System' to support small and startup companies starting from the 28th.
The regulatory sandbox refers to a system that grants special exceptions by suspending existing regulations under certain conditions (period, location, scale) to allow the market launch, testing, and verification of products and services utilizing new technologies.
The newly introduced one-stop pre-consulting system assigns a dedicated manager to each company to provide comprehensive support throughout the entire regulatory sandbox process, from preparing various application documents and developing business plans to coordinating with local governments for demonstrations. This reflects suggestions made during the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport's coffee chat meeting held in October last year.
The Ministry has decided to move away from the passive approach of reviewing applications and business plans submitted by companies for the regulatory sandbox. Based on one-on-one consultations, the dedicated manager will verify regulatory laws, collaborate with companies to draft business plans, and actively support the process from review and demonstration initiation to project progress.
Prior to the full-scale introduction of the system, the Ministry conducted a pilot operation by selecting three companies that requested new consultations since December last year. As a result, the Ministry explained that these companies significantly reduced the time required for rapid regulatory confirmation and business plan preparation from the previous 140 days to about 90 days, and expressed satisfaction with the integrated support provided by the dedicated managers.
Won Hee-ryong, Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, said, "After hearing from startup companies during the coffee chat that they were facing difficulties with the regulatory sandbox administrative procedures, we established the one-stop pre-consulting system that supports dedicated managers for each company," adding, "Government silos and various regulations must not hinder innovation as young entrepreneurs challenge their businesses with innovative ideas."
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