Oh Se-hoon, the Mayor of Seoul, is giving a speech at the Regulation Deregulation 100 Days Achievement Report Meeting held on Nov. 7. /Courtesy of Seoul City

Seoul City shared the achievements of its 100 days of deregulation efforts that began earlier this year. The city also decided to establish a dedicated organization for regulatory innovation at the Director General level to continue its deregulation efforts.

On the 7th, Seoul City held a '100 days of deregulation achievement report meeting' in the city hall conference room.

Attending the meeting were Oh Se-hoon, the mayor of Seoul, commissioners from the regulatory reform expert council, and citizens.

The meeting consisted of two parts: the first part presented the main achievements and representative cases of deregulation, while the second part involved discussions among experts on the direction of regulatory innovation by local governments.

In the first part, 127 deregulation proposals were announced. Earlier, from January 3 to April 12, Seoul City received a total of 2,538 suggestions related to deregulation from citizens, corporations, public officials, and affiliated organizations, and selected the deregulation proposals after review by the regulatory reform expert council.

Seoul City stated, "Initially, we focused on economic regulations, such as construction and housing, but we expanded the target of deregulation to include various unreasonable factors that inconvenience citizens' daily lives." This included unclear legal bases, unnecessary procedures, documentation requirements, and inconveniences related to livelihood, welfare, and transportation that affected citizens' lives.

Seven deregulation proposals that were decided to be executed in the public-private regulatory governance or proposed to the central government were also announced. Among them, the improvement of the training method for freight transport workers is currently being implemented (deregulation proposal number 108). Seoul City shared two proposals (deregulation proposals 128 and 129) that can be executed at the municipal level and four proposals that will be proposed to the central government.

The deregulation proposal number 128 announced that day is 'improvement of the Good Light Committee review.' Currently, facilities over a certain scale among large buildings and multi-family dwellings must undergo the Good Light Committee review every time outdoor lighting is installed. This has been criticized for delaying projects during construction permit processes and hindering the creativity of lighting design, as well as increasing the burden on businesses.

In response, the scope of review will be relaxed to focus on large buildings. Previously, the target included buildings with a total floor area of over 2,000 square meters or more than five stories, and multi-family dwellings with more than 20 households, but moving forward, the target will be buildings with a total floor area of over 20,000 square meters or more than 16 stories, and multi-family dwellings with more than 1,000 households. This content is expected to be implemented after discussions with the city council through local government ordinance amendments in the second half of the year.

Deregulation proposal number 129 is the 'elimination of restrictions on recruitment activities near corporate taxi training centers.' Until now, Seoul City had restricted corporate taxi operators from conducting recruitment activities within 100 meters of training centers for new taxi license holders. However, the legal basis for this regulation is unclear, and it overlaps with the Ministry of Employment and Labor's regulation on 'false job advertisements,' creating double regulation. In response, instead of eliminating this restriction, there are plans to formulate measures to prevent excessive recruitment activities in May.

Four regulatory reform agendas requiring improvements in central government laws and systems were also discussed. Currently, food hygiene training for new business operators is only available offline, but there are plans to expand it to online training. Furthermore, buildings that have been completed for more than 30 years can be registered for foreign tourist city accommodation if safety is ensured, and part-time employment for international students nearing graduation will be allowed at 40 hours a week.

Efforts to ease regulations related to the sale of refill cosmetics are also being pursued. Current cosmetics laws require retailers of refill cosmetics to mandatorily assign a preparation manager even for simple repackaging tasks. This has been criticized as an excessive burden on cosmetics sellers, and a bill to replace this with staff safety training is currently pending in the National Assembly. However, recognizing that there is ambiguity in the effectiveness of this, Seoul City intends to propose the exemption of the training obligation.

In the subsequent second part, five experts, including Lee Hyuk-woo, the civilian commissioner of the Government Regulatory Reform Committee, discussed the future direction of regulatory innovation in local governments. The commissioner noted that building an effective implementation system through cooperation with the central government is a key element.

There was also an announcement about Seoul City's plan to establish a new organization for ongoing regulatory innovation. Song Kwang-nam, the Director General for Policy Planning, announced that by July 1, they will establish a dedicated organization as a sustainable regulatory innovation implementation system. The organization will consist of a Regulatory Reform Committee (newly established and strengthened regulatory review), a Regulatory Coordinator (expert consultation), and a Regulatory Innovation Research Team from the Seoul Institute (investigation and research).

Seoul City stated, "The 3rd tier Director General organization is the first in local governments," adding, "We will promote the institutionalization and establishment of comprehensive regulatory innovation."