BUSAN < invest Korea

(BUSAN=NEWSIS) The City of Busan gains momentum to improve and reform regulations.

Busan Metropolitan City recently replaced its new registration limit system with open competition one to ease regulations. It changed regulations in seniors’ healthcare, dementia in particular, due to a new special class for dementia diagnosis and an increase in demand for geriatric care helper. The city also decided to train the care helpers so that they can serve seniors well, reintroducing new registration limit system for educational institutions.

As far as foreign investment is concerned, the city chose to ease regulations on companies invested by foreigners who funds more than USD 5 million following Act on Special Measures for the Promotion of Specialized Enterprise, etc for Components and Materials. The Act was passed at the Busan Metropolitan Council on April 29. The law allows foreign-invested companies in complex type area to get full exemption from rental costs and foreign-invested companies outside complex area to get 75 percent exemption from the costs.

Besides, the council agreed that it will increase the standard of floor area ratio to 10 percent for housing re-development areas that are full of deteriorated and under-developed residences. In the past, the areas were considered having little business value.

The City of Busan finished improving three ordinances including ‘Increase in Discount Rate for Rental Fee to Attract Foreign-invested Company’. Other 14 ordinances including ‘easing regulations on the outer layer of a two-layer wall construction’ are to be revised in the near-term.

The city also plans to hold regular meetings to check how well the authority does for the development.

Busan plans to strengthen regulations on caring for safe, disasters and the under-privileged while regulations that are having conflicting interests and controversial will be classified as mid-and-long term issues so that they are revised reasonably.

Furthermore, ‘hidden regulations’ and civil servants’ behavior, not just regulations and ordinances under the law, will be closely monitored by the authority.

The City of Busan established the Center for Reporting Regulations last February to preemptively deal with regulations that are needed to be revised. In addition, Busan works together with institutions and other municipal governments to find out issues.

Last month, the city established a comprehensive plan for regulation reform which will discover agendas and set up a database for better service.

Now that the city’s official webpage is linked to small-and-medium sized enterprises’ ombudsman center (http://www.osmb.go.kr), corporations and citizens can actively participate in the reform process.

“The City of Busan continues finding out hidden regulations and improve them, setting up a sustainable reform system which can really help corporations and citizens.” said a city official. “Busan plans to train civil servants so that they can strengthen their capability to reform regulations in a better way”