President Yoon Seok-yeol (third from left) is talking with Chief of Staff Kim Dae-gi (second) at a meeting of chiefs and secretaries at the Presidential Office in Yongsan, Seoul on the 30th, ahead of the execution of the supplementary budget for compensation for COVID-19 losses. yunhap news
President Yoon Seok-yeol said on the 30th, “Last week, major companies announced a big plan to invest KRW 1,000 trillion over five years and hire more than 300,000 new people.
President Yoon presided over a meeting of chiefs and secretaries at the presidential office in Yongsan, Seoul on the same day, and emphasized that “I will take charge of difficult and complicated regulations myself.”
President Yoon said, “First of all, we need to clearly improve the shadow regulation through administrative guidance that is not related to laws and regulations, and to deal with issues that can be done by Presidential Decree and Ministry of Justice among those that need to be amended, promptly.” We need to cooperate with the National Assembly to abolish the regulations,” he said. As companies have announced large-scale investment plans one after another, the presidential office explains that the government must first find and remove regulations that can be changed immediately.
At the meeting, President Yoon also asked the government to make efforts to stabilize prices. President Yoon said, “The Bank of Korea has significantly raised the inflation forecast for this year to 4.5%, but the perceived price of inflation will be higher.”
Regarding the 62 trillion won supplementary budget bill passed by the National Assembly the day before, President Yoon said, “It is the natural duty of a state governed by law to compensate for losses caused by the government’s measures to restrict the exercise of property rights during the quarantine process against COVID-19.” We ask the financial authorities to quickly implement the supplementary budget so that small business owners and small self-employed people can quickly find stability in their lives,” he said.
Only 3,000 corporate regulations…尹 “Global competition is difficult with sandbags”
‘An answer’ to large-scale corporate investment and employment by deregulation
On the 30th, President Yoon Seok-yeol announced his strong will to break regulations to expand corporate investment and promote economic growth. Following Prime Minister Han Deok-soo last week, even President Yoon directly ordered “all ministries to ease regulations”. At the government level, it is expected that the enforcement ordinance will be revised or the easing of administrative regulations through oral guidance will be promoted first.
In matters such as the working environment and the complicated entanglement of stakeholders, and issues that require the National Assembly to revise the law, President Yoon emphasized that “I will personally step forward.”
“All ministries are regulatory reform ministries”
President Yoon brought up the topic of ‘regulation relaxation’ as if he was determined at a meeting of chiefs and secretaries held at the presidential office in Yongsan, Seoul on the same day. In the ranking of the enforcement of the supplementary budget bill passed by the National Assembly the night before and the remarks about price stability, it was pushed behind the deregulation.
President Yoon said, “It is difficult for (businesses) to go to the global market and compete in the global market wearing sandbags. do,” he instructed.
It was confirmed that the President’s Office has recently compiled business-related regulations through each ministry. An official from the presidential office said, “There are about 3,000 regulations on large and small businesses within the government.” “There are many regulations that do not require amendment of the law, so we plan to abolish regulations that are not effective in order.”
Although President Yoon has put the economy at the forefront of the private sector, he has rarely mentioned deregulation directly. Even at the time of his first municipal speech at the National Assembly on the 16th, he focused on structural social reform, saying, “Pension reform, labor reform, and education reform cannot be delayed any longer.”
It is said that President Yoon’s perception of the situation began to change little by little as he met more frequent businessmen. President Yoon invited major business people to the inauguration ceremony and inauguration dinner, and last week he held a small and medium-sized business competition in the lawn plaza in front of the president’s office and surprised even the heads of large corporations.
Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong of Samsung, the No. 1 business group, attended five presidential events in about 20 days after the inauguration of the new government.
The analysis of the business community is that the Yoon Seok-yeol administration’s ‘business-friendly’ policy led to voluntary investment by companies. Samsung announced that it would invest 450 trillion won in semiconductors, biotechnology, and new growth information technology (IT) over the next five years, followed by other major companies’ investment and employment plans. This is the background for President Yoon’s emphasis on the day, saying, “Now is the time for the government to respond by loosening regulations that block corporate investment.” A high-ranking official from an economic group said, “Every time a new government was launched, large corporations announced their investment and employment plans,” said a senior official of an economic group. .
Economic circle “Location, manpower, new industry regulations need to be loosened”
President Yoon also explained the approximate direction of deregulation on the same day. First, the shadow regulation such as administrative guidance is removed, and then the government-level deregulation, such as the presidential decree and vice ordinance, is promoted.
The president also expressed his will to take care of difficult and complex regulations. There is also an expectation within the government that a new regulatory innovation strategy meeting will be established, chaired by the president and attended by the public and private sectors.
There are various opinions in the business community regarding deregulation. First of all, the semiconductor industry is demanding easing of regulations related to the construction of semiconductor factories. Some point out that regulations related to the metropolitan area should be loosened to secure manpower. In the semiconductor industry, where there is a shortage of manpower right now, there are many voices for deregulation.
New industries, such as online platforms, continue to demand deregulation. In a recent report by the Korea Employers Federation, it was diagnosed that the competitiveness of the three new industries: online platforms, bio/health, and fintech is lagging behind due to various regulations. There are many regulations related to telemedicine compared to other countries. In relation to Fintech, there are continuous opinions from companies that it is difficult to secure global competitiveness due to proactive positive regulations such as strong network separation and protection of personal information.
Reporter Dong-wook Jwa / Shin-young Park / In-yeop Kim inside@hankyung.com
