Goyang City Selected as Outstanding Local Government for Regulatory Innovation in 2025

Selected as 'Outstanding' for the Second Consecutive Year
Secures Special Grant of 100 Million Won

Goyang Special City in Gyeonggi Province (Mayor Lee Donghwan) announced on January 16 that it had been selected as an 'Outstanding Local Government for Regulatory Innovation in 2025,' securing a special grant of 100 million won as a financial incentive on January 15.

Exterior view of Goyang Special City Hall. Provided by Goyang Special City.

The city further solidified its status as a leading city in regulatory innovation by being selected for the second consecutive year, following last year's selection in the same category, which earned it a special grant of 200 million won.

The Ministry of the Interior and Safety conducts an annual performance evaluation of local regulatory innovation for municipalities nationwide to systematically assess their regulatory innovation capabilities and to spread best practices.

This year's evaluation consisted of four assessment categories and twelve detailed indicators, including activities to identify and improve regulations. Based on these criteria, the ministry conducted a comprehensive multi-faceted analysis of each municipality's performance. The results serve as the basis for providing financial incentives to outstanding institutions, fostering healthy competition among local governments and maximizing the ripple effect of regulatory innovation.

In this evaluation, Goyang City was selected as an outstanding institution in the 'city' group, one of four groups among 243 local governments nationwide. The city received particularly high marks for creating forums to resolve regulatory challenges and for establishing collaborative systems with stakeholders and experts.

This year, the city held six regulatory reform meetings with provincial research institutes and four discussion sessions with external experts and stakeholders, focusing on practical regulatory relief that reflects voices from the field.

In addition, the city proactively reviewed local ordinances in areas directly related to citizens' lives-such as fostering local industries, supporting vulnerable groups, and revitalizing the local economy-even if these were not officially classified as regulatory work, and promoted tangible regulatory improvements.

The city also identified and revised ordinances that had not incorporated amendments to higher-level laws, thereby preventing administrative confusion caused by inconsistencies between laws and ensuring legal consistency in policy implementation.

As a result of these efforts, a total of 34 local ordinances were revised or amended this year, which is credited with enhancing citizen convenience and improving the predictability of administrative services in the region.

Meanwhile, Goyang City has continued its achievements in regulatory reform, including the Presidential Citation in the 2022 'Outstanding Local Government for Regulatory Innovation Certification Program,' the Encouragement Award in the 2023 Outstanding Regulatory Innovation Cases Competition, and being selected as an outstanding local government for regulatory innovation in 2024.

The city plans to leverage these experiences and achievements to further spread citizen-centered regulatory innovation models through active cooperation with central government ministries.