Accepting Unreasonable Regulations in Municipal Administration Until April 12
Focusing on Economic and Livelihood Areas Causing Citizen Inconvenience
Reported Regulations to Be Reexamined from Scratch... From Reform to Abolition
Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon has set 'deregulation' as the core goal of this year's administration and plans to identify and improve regulations that do not meet citizens' expectations. Priority will be given to sectors with a high proportion of citizens' economic activities, and ways to directly hear voices from the field are also being considered.
According to Seoul City on the 2nd, the city will operate a focused reporting system for unreasonable and unnecessary regulations across all administrative areas for 100 days from the 3rd to April 12th. A Seoul city official explained, "We are determined to actively discover unnecessary regulations in economic and livelihood areas directly related to citizens' lives and to carry out deregulation beyond regulatory reform," adding, "Discovering and managing regulations through voices from the field is the first step toward deregulation."
The main targets are the wholesale and retail, and professional service sectors, which have a high share in citizens' economic activities. These sectors are significantly constrained in their business activities due to various regulations. In 2023, the shares of wholesale and retail trade, finance and insurance, information and communication, and professional services in the local gross domestic product were 17%, 13%, 12%, and 10%, respectively.
This 100-day focused regulation reporting system is also part of Mayor Oh's New Year's address, where he mentioned "deregulation to relieve citizens' burdens." Regulations reported by citizens will be re-examined from scratch by the relevant departments to assess the necessity of their retention. If the need for improvement is deemed high, the issue will be submitted to the deregulation meeting chaired by the mayor for discussion, and if found unnecessary, the regulations will be boldly abolished.
On the same day, Mayor Oh also stated on Facebook, "The theme of Seoul's administration this year is deregulation," and "I emphasized at the first meeting of the year that deregulation is vital to reviving people's livelihoods." He explained, "We named it deregulation with a stronger will than regulatory reform," adding, "While reform means adjusting existing systems, deregulation signifies a more proactive attitude of boldly eliminating unnecessary systems."
He also proposed a reward system for public officials. Mayor Oh said, "We will also operate a reward system to activate regulatory improvement ideas from frontline public officials," emphasizing, "Uncertainty experienced by citizens during the licensing process, especially risk-averse passive administration by field staff, is the biggest enemy of people's livelihoods."
Regulation reporting promoted by Seoul City can be done through the Regulatory Reform Sinmungo. The Regulatory Reform Sinmungo is a nationwide online regulatory portal operated by the Office for Government Policy Coordination that allows public participation. When regulations related to Seoul city administration are reported through this portal, they are received by Seoul City after passing through the Office for Government Policy Coordination, and then reviewed and responded to by the city's relevant regulatory departments. Song Kwang-nam, Seoul City's Policy Planning Officer, said, "In the economic crisis situation, we will prioritize finding what the city can do to eliminate economic and livelihood regulations that hinder the activities of companies and small business owners," and urged, "We hope citizens actively discover and report unreasonable economic and livelihood regulations that closely affect their lives."
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