Park declares war against regulations

A citizen listens to President Park Geun-hye’s speech during the presidential deregulation roundtable, which was nationally televised, sitting in front of a television at Seoul Station, Thursday. / Yonhap

By Kim Tae-gyu

President Park Geun-hye declared a war against regulations, Thursday, which she described as “cancerous bodies” hampering national growth.

“Despite previous administrations’ efforts to deregulate, we still have many unnecessary regulations that can only be found in Korea, and obsolete ones that have failed to keep abreast of change,” Park said in a nationally-televised roundtable at Cheong Wa Dae.

Officials and businessmen from small- and medium-sized firms as well as conglomerates attended the meeting.

Park cited the example of the cumbersome online payment system that foreigners can’t use.

“After a Korean soap opera gained great popularity in China, Chinese people logged on to our online shopping malls in order to purchase clothes or accessories worn by the show’s main characters,” Park said. “But they ended up throwing up their hands after learning they needed certificates to do so.”

Park also said that deregulation is a significant part of her three-year plan to boost the economy that she announced earlier this year.

Through focusing on high-tech convergence and services industries — crucial to underpinning domestic consumption — Park presented a set of specific goals including achieving $30,000 in per capita gross domestic product (GDP) and a 70-percent employment rate.

“For the three-year plan, we have crafted a total of 59 action plans in three areas. Deregulation is the most significant task that lies beneath all of these,” said Park.

The President promised to introduce new systems such as incorporating sunset clauses in current regulations and preventing lawmakers from coming up with fresh ones en masse.

Stressing that civil servants should play a big role in removing bureaucratic red tape, Park said that administrators who successfully push through reforms will stand a better chance of being promoted.

“The evaluation system for bureaucrats will be fully revised so that those working hard for deregulation will receive good marks,” she said. “They will get unprecedented incentives for promotion.”

Meanwhile, critics are concerned that the government is trying to go too far because not all the regulations in place are necessarily bad. Some are long-fought-for safeguards on welfare, security, safety and the environment.

Throughout the roundtable, Park also pointed out the downside of recklessly carrying out deregulation blindly.

“To properly achieve the goals of deregulation, we are required to take a balanced approach and distinguish necessary regulations from unnecessary ones,” she said.

“Instead of just attempting to reduce the number of regulations, ministries should sift between good and bad to improve those that are good and root out the bad ones.”