President Park Geun-hye abhors business regulation so much that she calls them "cancerous tumors" that should be sent to the "guillotine." This is not hard to understand, considering how direly President Park wants to bolster the economy and create jobs.
But Park must know not all administrative red tapes are bad; some are necessary, or even good. Her business-friendly predecessor pushed to remove regulations throughout his term, only fattening the pockets of big businesses further but doing little to turn the economy around. Lee Myung-bak's easing of safety-related regulations led to the sinking of ferry Sewol, and more recently, to a fire at a glamping site.
One such regulation that should remain in place for the public good is the constraint on commercial activities in green belts. It was very disappointing, therefore, to see the Park administration move to sharply relax regulations on green belts by shifting much of the administrative control from central to local governments.
Nothing would be more welcome for provincial governors and city mayors who would do anything to be elected and, after being elected, to fill up their empty coffers.
By allowing the local administrative chiefs to re-designate up to 300,000 square meters of green-belt land as commercial or residential, the already dwindling "urban lungs" will reduce further. The suburbs of metropolitan areas, particularly Seoul and Gyeonggi Province, will suffer from rampant and reckless development. Long praised as the model of urban management by the World Bank, Korea's green belts are facing an existential crisis.
It's a sad irony that President Park is about to erode one of the strong legacies of her father, former President Park Chung-hee, who introduced the system in 1971.
Government officials say they will maintain a close eye on adverse effects by re-listing idle or seriously damaged land as green belts. But none of their supplementary measures appears sufficient to keep damage from being made in the first place and making officials responsible after governors and mayors leave office.
It may be necessary to not seriously infringe upon the property rights of ordinary people that own land around these areas, but they should be the exception, not the norm. Otherwise, the latest relaxation would only benefit a handful of local proprietors.
President Park, who opposes a little more generous pension plan for working-class people because of what she regards as excessive burden on future generations, needs to stop and think whether the erosion of green belts is not destroying land that should be used by descendants.
The government should shelve the deregulation plan until it comes up with more effective measures ― or drop the idea entirely.
But Park must know not all administrative red tapes are bad; some are necessary, or even good. Her business-friendly predecessor pushed to remove regulations throughout his term, only fattening the pockets of big businesses further but doing little to turn the economy around. Lee Myung-bak's easing of safety-related regulations led to the sinking of ferry Sewol, and more recently, to a fire at a glamping site.
One such regulation that should remain in place for the public good is the constraint on commercial activities in green belts. It was very disappointing, therefore, to see the Park administration move to sharply relax regulations on green belts by shifting much of the administrative control from central to local governments.
Nothing would be more welcome for provincial governors and city mayors who would do anything to be elected and, after being elected, to fill up their empty coffers.
By allowing the local administrative chiefs to re-designate up to 300,000 square meters of green-belt land as commercial or residential, the already dwindling "urban lungs" will reduce further. The suburbs of metropolitan areas, particularly Seoul and Gyeonggi Province, will suffer from rampant and reckless development. Long praised as the model of urban management by the World Bank, Korea's green belts are facing an existential crisis.
It's a sad irony that President Park is about to erode one of the strong legacies of her father, former President Park Chung-hee, who introduced the system in 1971.
Government officials say they will maintain a close eye on adverse effects by re-listing idle or seriously damaged land as green belts. But none of their supplementary measures appears sufficient to keep damage from being made in the first place and making officials responsible after governors and mayors leave office.
It may be necessary to not seriously infringe upon the property rights of ordinary people that own land around these areas, but they should be the exception, not the norm. Otherwise, the latest relaxation would only benefit a handful of local proprietors.
President Park, who opposes a little more generous pension plan for working-class people because of what she regards as excessive burden on future generations, needs to stop and think whether the erosion of green belts is not destroying land that should be used by descendants.
The government should shelve the deregulation plan until it comes up with more effective measures ― or drop the idea entirely.
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