Goyang Special City Announces Local Regulatory Innovation Plan, Launches Full-Scale Regulatory Reforms

Revitalizing the Local Economy and Enhancing Quality of Life Through Changes Felt by Citizens and Businesses
Focusing on Identifying Key Investment Projects, Revising Local Ordinances, and Improving Regulations for the Self-Employed

Goyang Special City in Gyeonggi Province (Mayor Lee Donghwan) announced on May 23 that it has established and released the 2025 Local Regulatory Innovation Promotion Plan, and will begin full-scale regulatory reforms that citizens and businesses can tangibly experience in their daily lives.

Goyang Special City is establishing and announcing the 2025 Local Regulatory Innovation Promotion Plan. Provided by Goyang Special City

Goyang Special City is the only city in northern Gyeonggi Province with a population exceeding one million and serves as a key hub for metropolitan transportation in the Seoul Capital Area. With the full-scale development of the first and third phases of new towns, the city features a structure where areas with newly built apartments coexist with older residential neighborhoods.

Additionally, in its efforts to become a self-sustaining city, Goyang is focusing on creating industrial complexes in high-growth potential fields such as information technology (IT) and artificial intelligence (AI), while its local economy is supported primarily by small and medium-sized enterprises and small business owners.

Reflecting these unique local conditions, the city has set the goal of "enhancing local economic vitality and improving the quality of life for citizens through regulatory innovation." Under this objective, it has established three major focus areas: first, improving central government regulations in ways that citizens and businesses can directly feel; second, strengthening on-site communication and proactive administration to improve regulations; and third, enhancing regulatory innovation capabilities.

This year, the city plans to identify major investment projects that are facing difficulties due to legal regulations or delays in consultations with central government ministries, with the aim of revitalizing investment and facilitating smooth fiscal execution. In addition, for projects previously submitted to central ministries but met with rejection, the city intends to hold forums attended by the relevant central regulatory authorities, stakeholders, and external experts to increase the acceptance rate of these proposals.

Furthermore, in line with the Ministry of the Interior and Safety's "Plan for Improving Civil Regulations and Addressing Shadow Regulations by Local Governments," the city will conduct a comprehensive review and revision of its local ordinances.

This review will focus on expanding the range of eligible support recipients, easing qualification requirements, and revising local ordinances to better accommodate socially disadvantaged groups, thereby supporting the revitalization of the local economy.

In particular, the city plans to proactively identify and improve local ordinances that have not yet incorporated amendments to higher-level laws, in order to minimize citizen inconvenience and enhance consistency among legal statutes.

Another distinguishing feature from last year is the city's focus on identifying regulations related to small business owners and the self-employed. Through collaboration with the Small Business Support Division, the city will identify regulatory types that are repeatedly raised by industry, and will gather feedback on on-site challenges through meetings with the Business Difficulties Center, the Small Business Association, and merchant associations.

Goyang Special City expects that these regulatory reforms will significantly reduce the management burden on self-employed individuals and small business owners, and contribute greatly to strengthening the foundation of the local economy by promoting entrepreneurship and supporting the sustainability of livelihoods.

A Goyang Special City official stated, "This local regulatory innovation plan serves as a foundation to make tangible improvements to on-site inconveniences and create changes that citizens and businesses can truly feel. We will continue to identify and improve unreasonable regulations through ongoing communication with the field, and will further revitalize the region through proactive administration."