Health ministry unveils deregulation push for startups and regional growth

The health ministry said Friday that South Korea will push to clear site-specific regulatory burdens in robotics, semiconductors, artificial intelligence data centers, autonomous vehicles and biotech, as the government seeks to turn regional growth plans into tangible results.

The measures were discussed at the second full meeting of the Presidential Regulatory Rationalization Committee, chaired by President Lee Jae-myung at the Yeongbingwan reception hall of the presidential office. About 100 people attended, including the prime minister, three private vice chairpersons, committee members and field experts.

The government will pursue enactment of a super-wide special zone act to provide an institutional foundation for region-led growth, and will move quickly to resolve regulatory difficulties at industrial sites in line with the principle of bringing regulation to the level of competing economies that President Lee set out at the committee's first meeting in April. It will also overhaul startup-related rules long kept in place for administrative convenience, improving uniform and rigid startup criteria and unreasonable financial transaction requirements, and sharply reducing the administrative documents startup companies must submit in licensing and policy support applications.

"Regulations that block the development of new technologies and new industries, or that are outdated and inconvenient, must be improved swiftly and boldly," Lee said.

The meeting brought in experts from the megaproject fields of robotics, semiconductors and AI data centers, from the five-pole, three-specialty core industries of autonomous vehicles and biotech, and from the startup sector to hear the regulatory obstacles they face on the ground and to seek remedies, the Ministry of Health and Welfare said.

"Those who administer regulations tend to think the work is routine and that the rules are obviously necessary because they are written in the legal code," Lee said. "From the perspective of those subject to the regulations, there are many unreasonable cases."

The second meeting focused on giving concrete shape to matters discussed at the first and on measures to produce results that can be felt in the field, centering on the government's priority tasks: the megaprojects, the five-pole, three-specialty growth engines and the super-wide special zones.