The 2nd Ombudsman Committee Meeting Held
The Small and Medium Enterprise Ombudsman has successfully achieved most regulatory improvements through consultation and persuasion following its regulatory improvement recommendations. This is being evaluated as a result that has significantly enhanced the effectiveness of the Ombudsman's unique authority to recommend regulatory improvements.
On June 25, the Small and Medium Enterprise Ombudsman announced that it had held the '2nd Ombudsman Committee Meeting of 2025' to discuss the results of regulatory improvement recommendations and subsequent actions. Regulatory improvement recommendations are the exclusive authority of the SME Ombudsman, allowing it to recommend improvements to the relevant agencies for regulations deemed in need of change under the Framework Act on Small and Medium Enterprises. Agencies that receive such recommendations must submit whether they accept and implement the recommendations after they are issued.
In February of this year, two regulatory improvement recommendations were issued: exemption from subsidy recovery for electric vehicles used for autonomous driving research and development by the Ministry of Environment, and the deletion of joint surety provisions remaining in 106 ordinances across 75 local governments.
Choi Seungjae Ombudsman
The recommendation to the Ministry of Environment focused on excluding electric vehicles used for autonomous driving research purposes from being subject to subsidy recovery. Currently, if an electric vehicle that received a subsidy is deregistered within 24 months, the subsidy is recovered. However, for vehicles used for autonomous driving research, deregistration occurs when obtaining a temporary permit under the Automobile Management Act, making them subject to subsidy recovery.
The SME Ombudsman recommended to the Ministry of Environment in February that even if such vehicles are deregistered, they continue to operate within designated permit zones and therefore do not violate the purpose of the electric vehicle supply project, which is to reduce air pollutant emissions. The Ministry of Environment revised the 'Guidelines for the Administration of Subsidies for the Electric Vehicle Supply Project' to exclude vehicles used for autonomous driving research purposes from subsidy recovery. As a result, the Ombudsman expects that the use of electric vehicles for research purposes will become more active.
In the case of joint surety provisions, although the central government, policy financial institutions, and commercial banks have already abolished the joint surety system, these provisions remained in 106 ordinances at the local government level. The Ombudsman recommended that all 75 responsible local governments delete these provisions. As a result of continuous consultation with each local government, 74 agreed to delete the provisions. However, Uljin County in North Gyeongsang Province responded that it would be difficult to comply. The Ombudsman plans to encourage the local governments that promised to accept the improvements to complete the process through regular compliance checks.
Choi Seungjae, the Ombudsman, stated, "We will actively utilize the SME Ombudsman's regulatory improvement recommendation system to ensure that regulations with a high need for improvement are actually improved."
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