By Kang Seung-woo
President Park Geun-hye reaffirmed Tuesday she would speed up deregulation in order to boost the economy.
“After swiftly reviewing the validity of regulations, those hampering investment and job creation will be handled all at once by a regulatory guillotine,” Park said during a Cabinet meeting at Cheong Wa Dae.
The new measures will focus on core regulations in a top-down manner, according to Park.
Since the beginning of the year, the President has emphasized that deregulation is a significant part of her three-year plan to boost the economy focusing on high-tech convergence and the services industries, which are crucial to underpinning domestic consumption.
Park previously held televised roundtable discussions on her administration’s drive for regulatory reform in March and September.
“Despite the government’s efforts, I have heard consistent complaints that there are still many unshakable core regulations,” she said.
“It is important to remove smaller regulations and resolve the inconveniences for people and companies, but more fundamentally, we should focus on removing core regulations that will guarantee an increase in investment and job creation.”
The President added that she would expand the regulatory guillotine.
During the G-20 summit held earlier this month in Australia, Park stressed regulatory reform in her speech to the leaders of the world’s 20 major economies. There she explained her administration’s efforts to instigate deregulation.
Along with regulatory reform, she also vowed to fight corruption in the defense industry.
Last week, the government launched a joint investigation team made up of prosecutors, military officers and government officials to investigate corruption allegations in the wake of a recent bribery scandal over an indigenous Navy ship project.
“This is something that can’t be compromised,” Park said. “The truth must be unearthed to prevent such incidents from happening again.”
Her “declaration of war against corruption” came after the bribery case concerning the 3,500-ton Tongyeong — the first Korean-made rescue and salvage ship — hit the military and defense industries hard.
In September, a former Navy officer was indicted on charges of forging a document for the selection of a sonar system for the vessel. This occurred when he was in charge of selecting a supplier under the Defense Acquisition Program Administration.
President Park also urged the National Assembly to swiftly ratify free trade agreements (FTA) that will help the nation boost its sluggish economy.
During her trips to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation and G-20 summits, Korea completed FTA negotiations with China and New Zealand. In addition, Seoul also signed the free trade deals with Australia and Canada in April and September, respectively.
She also asked the Assembly to fast-track bills regarding the budget for next year.
The government submitted a 376 trillion won ($336 billion) budget for 2015, up 5.7 percent from this year.