The Ministry of SMEs and Startups said on the 23rd that a revised enforcement decree of the Special Act on Regulatory Exceptions for Regulation-Free Zones and Regional Specialized Development Zones, aimed at reducing burdens on corporations and increasing use of the zone system, passed the Cabinet meeting.
The revision is a follow-up procedure to the related law amended and promulgated at the end of last year. It reflects the plan to overhaul the regional specialized development zone system released in November last year. The revised enforcement decree takes effect July 1.
First, it specified the criteria for conditions attached to regulatory exceptions such as demonstration exemptions and temporary permits. In some zones, the ministries in charge of regulations imposed conditions with little direct relevance to the projects or excessive conditions, causing delays in demonstrations and commercialization. Going forward, conditions will be imposed only within the scope necessary to ensure safety and prevent risks, and ambiguous or excessive conditions will be restricted.
It also set the scope of allowed foreign-language medical advertising within regional specialized development zones. Specialized operators that run medical institutions registered under the Act on Overseas Expansion of Medical Services and Attraction of Foreign Patients may conduct foreign-language medical advertising within the zones.
The foundation for attracting foreign patients to medical institutions in medical tourism zones such as the Gangseo Miracle-Medi Zone in Seoul, the Yeongdeungpo Smart Medical Zone, the Medi-City Daegu Global Medical Zone, and the Seo District, Busan Global Hi-Medi Hub Zone is expected to expand.
In addition, it establishes a post-management period for regulation-free zones and introduces quantitative evaluation indicators for the review of designations of regional specialized development zones. This is a measure to improve the effectiveness and management system of zone operations.
Regulation-free zones are a system that applies regulatory exceptions, such as demonstration exemptions and temporary permits, to support the development of products and services based on new technologies in non-capital regions. The Ministry of SMEs and Startups (MSS) has designated 49 zones and granted 136 regulatory exceptions since the system was introduced in 2019. To date, 62 statutes and regulations have been revised.
A representative case is the Daegu mobile collaborative robot regulation-free zone designated in 2020. The zone conducted demonstrations verifying the safety and utility of mobile collaborative robots, which led to the establishment of a Korea Industrial Standard (KS) on mobile collaborative robot safety standards. Participating corporations such as SL Corporation achieved cumulative sales of 80.9 billion won and investment attraction of 14.4 billion won.
Regional specialized development zones are a system that applies regulatory exceptions to enable promotion of development strategies utilizing local specialized industries and resources. Since their introduction in 2004, 171 zones are currently in operation nationwide.