Lee Junseok: "Sandbox Regulations to Match Counterpart Countries... Introduction of Regulatory Reference Country System"

On May 2, Lee Junseok, the presidential candidate of the Reform New Party, pledged to implement a "regulatory reference country system," which would align the current sandbox regulatory standards with those of counterpart countries.

On this day, Lee explained through a briefing document, "We will overhaul the current regulatory sandbox so that if an applicant designates a regulatory reference country, the regulatory standards of that country will be directly applied to grant business approval."

The regulatory sandbox is a system that exempts businesses from all or part of existing regulations, allowing them to launch and test new products and services utilizing innovative technologies in the market under certain conditions such as time, location, and scale.

Lee stated, "There is a need to clearly present the goals and direction of regulatory reform, which has remained only a slogan under past administrations." He further explained the policy objective, saying, "We will encourage and support business startups and the development of new industries by permitting business models and activities that are allowed in leading overseas countries to also be permitted domestically."

Yonhap News

Specifically, the core of the plan is to establish and operate a new special permit system that incorporates the regulatory reference country system, rather than relying on demonstration exemptions or temporary permits.

Currently, the regulatory sandbox imposes many additional conditions and has a narrow scope of business approval. Under the new system, if an applicant presents the regulatory standards of a reference country, those standards will be applied as long as they are verified. In addition, a Regulatory Tribunal under the Prime Minister will be established to oversee the entire process from application to the granting of exemptions. A special exemption period of 10 years will be granted, but in the event of an accident causing injury or loss of life, the exemption will be immediately suspended.

Lee announced, "After designating regulatory reference countries for each sector, we will develop a five-year roadmap for legislative amendments to reform domestic regulations to match the standards of those countries."