Mayor Bang Sehwan Of Gwangju: "Overhauling 40-Year-Old Regulations Is Key To Strengthening National Competitiveness"

Call for Easing Regulations on the Seoul Metropolitan Area at the "Han River Love Forum"
Initiating Regulatory Rationalization, Including Expanding Industrial Complexes up to 300,000 Square Meters
Pushing for a National Assembly Debate on Rationalizing Regulations on the Seoul Metropolitan Area

Gwangju City in Gyeonggi Province attended the second meeting of the second-term "Han River Love Forum" held on the 25th at the convention hall of Yongin Special City Hall.

Bang Sehwan, mayor of Gwangju (third from the right), is attending the second meeting of the second term of the "Han River Love Forum," held on the 25th at the Yongin City Hall Convention Hall. Photo provided by Gwangju, Gyeonggi Province.

About 50 people participated in the meeting, including Bang Sehwan, Mayor of Gwangju and co-representative of the Han River Love Forum, National Assembly member Song Seokjun, the Mayor of Yongin Special City, the Mayor of Hanam, the Mayor of Icheon, the Governor of Gapyeong County, and the co-chairs of the Special Measures Area Water Quality Conservation Policy Council.

The main focus of the meeting was on rationalizing the limits on the area of development projects within nature conservation zones. A presentation was given on a plan to ease the area limit for industrial complexes from the current 60,000 square meters to 300,000 square meters and to expand the scope of urban development projects from 60,000 square meters to 100,000 square meters. In addition, opinions were presented that it is necessary to rationalize the excessive regulations that have continued for 40 years in order to promote mutually beneficial development between the Seoul metropolitan area and non-metropolitan regions.

The participants agreed to hold a "(tentative title) Policy Debate on Rationalizing Regulations for Mutually Beneficial Development between the Seoul Metropolitan Area and Local Regions" at the National Assembly. Officials from central government ministries in charge of regulations and others will attend the debate to share on-site opinions and discuss concrete improvement measures that can lead to substantive revisions of laws and regulations. Afterwards, they plan to hold a press conference to publicly announce their call for rationalizing regulations on the Seoul metropolitan area.

Mayor Bang Sehwan emphasized the importance of revising unreasonable regulatory laws and regulations to strengthen national competitiveness, stating, "To respond effectively to regulations, it is important to prepare detailed and practical plans for rationalizing regulations so that tangible results can be achieved."

Meanwhile, the "Han River Love Forum" is a policy council in which eight cities and counties in the Han River basin, which are designated as nature conservation zones and are subject to various overlapping regulations, participate. The participating local governments are Gwangju City, Yongin Special City, Hanam City, Uiwang City, Icheon City, Yeoju City, Yangpyeong County, and Gapyeong County. The forum plans to continue consultations to rationalize regulations in the future.