Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry holds first regional forum of presidential regulatory reform committee in South Chungcheong Province; businesses call for easing logistics complex rules, flooring recycling mandates

Park Yong-jin, vice chairman of the Presidential Committee on Regulatory Rationalization. (Yun Chang-bin)
Park Yong-jin, vice chairman of the Presidential Committee on Regulatory Rationalization. (Yun Chang-bin)

The Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry held the first regional forum of the Presidential Committee on Regulatory Rationalization, aimed at driving field-centered regulatory reform.

The Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry convened the forum Tuesday morning at the North Chungnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry. More than 50 regional business leaders and officials attended, including Song Gyeong-seok, chief executive of Korea Export Packing, Kim Un-gon, chief executive of Kukbo Chemical, and Hwang In-seong, chairman of Hansung T&I, along with other vice chairpersons of the North Chungnam Chamber.

Participants raised concerns about regulations governing the development of logistics complexes. Under current law, developers of urban advanced logistics complexes must make a public contribution — equivalent to up to 25 percent of the land value — to the state or local government, a requirement businesses said discourages investment. A local government official at the forum said the public contribution burden makes it difficult for companies to enter smaller regional cities, and called for easing the obligation for areas outside the greater Seoul metropolitan area.

Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry headquarters. (Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry)
Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry headquarters. (Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry)

Businesses also called for relaxing mandatory recycling rates for waste flooring materials. As annual recycling obligations continue to rise, recently produced flooring has become increasingly difficult to recycle, leaving companies with an unavoidable burden, participants said. Other issues raised included converting the permitted-use list for industrial complex tenants to a negative-regulation system, easing forklift licensing requirements for foreign workers in rural and fishing communities, and reforming the periodic auditor designation system to better reflect regional accessibility.

Park Yong-jin, vice chairman of the Presidential Committee on Regulatory Rationalization, delivered remarks after hearing the regional concerns firsthand. "Just as the Gyeongbu Expressway and high-speed internet were national infrastructure that transformed their eras, the new industrial age of AI, robots and biotech requires a regulatory rationalization expressway," he said. He added that if outdated regulations are blocking the path of new industries, "clearing them away is precisely the infrastructure investment of our time."

The Presidential Committee on Regulatory Rationalization is a pan-government regulatory reform body launched this year under the Lee Jae Myung administration, reorganized from the Regulatory Reform Committee established in 1998. The Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry plans to hold follow-up forums in Hwaseong, Ulsan, Yeosu and Daejeon after the North Chungnam session.


klee@heraldcorp.com