The Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) has proposed to the government a list of "100 Regulatory Innovation Tasks Desired by Businesses" ahead of the government's full-scale regulatory innovation drive.

The Chamber of Commerce announced on the 4th that it had delivered to the government the "Regulatory Innovation Tasks Desired by Businesses," which includes regulatory innovation tasks discovered through the Private Regulatory Sandbox Support Center and the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry's communication platform, as well as tasks received through member companies and 72 local chambers of commerce.

This proposal selected 100 tasks in six major areas: new industries, current obstacles, environment, location, health care, and general management, taking into account the core areas of the 'Economic Regulatory Innovation Task Force' recently announced by the government. As the government has announced bold regulatory innovation, it requested a speedy review and improvement of the regulatory innovation tasks desired by companies.

The Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry explained the background of this proposal as follows: “Regulations are not perceived as something that is ‘nice to have’ for businesses, but as a ‘noose’ that is immediately choking them.” The purpose of this proposal is to “convey the desperate situation of businesses suffering from regulations to the government and to ask them to promote regulatory innovation that can give businesses a breather.”

The proposal included 26 regulatory innovation tasks related to new industries and new technologies, including AI robots, drones, eco-friendly new technologies, hydrogen economy, sharing economy, and mobility.

Among these, there are projects approved through the regulatory sandbox that have a large socio-economic ripple effect or have a certain level of stability.It also includes tasks that require preemptive follow-up legal revisions, such as verified tasks.

New industry regulations often rely on outdated legal systems, and related regulations are often intertwined across multiple ministries.

For example, autonomous robots have been actively promoted in advanced countries such as the US and the UK, and the global market size has exceeded 2 trillion won (2021), but they cannot run freely in Korea.

▲Autonomous Robot Regulations (Image Source: Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry)

This is because, under the Road Traffic Act enacted in the 1960s, they are classified as ‘vehicles’ and cannot enter crosswalks, and under the Parks and Green Space Act, entry into parks is restricted, and under the Personal Information Protection Act, AI learning and robot camera video recording for collision prevention are also restricted.

Likewise, wireless charging technology for electric vehicles using radio waves cannot be commercialized due to the lack of relevant standards under the Radio Act, the Electrical Consumer Goods Safety Act, and the Automobile Management Act.

Accordingly, both technologies are being operated only as pilot projects through regulatory sandboxes.

The ministry explained that in order for companies to avoid falling behind in global competition due to their inability to enter innovative industries, inter-ministerial efforts must be made to fill the "regulatory loopholes" that prevent changes in new technological services from being reflected.

He also requested that issues that can be improved through revisions to lower-level laws such as OTA be resolved quickly.

The Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry said, “Unlike legislative amendments that require the cooperation of the National Assembly, issues that can be improved by revising lower-level laws such as enforcement decrees and enforcement regulations must be resolved quickly.” He ordered that the tasks be categorized separately and that visible regulatory innovation results be achieved.

A representative example is the expansion of the scope of national strategic technology recognition. Currently, national strategic technologies are limited to semiconductors, secondary batteries, and vaccines. However, reflecting the latest technological trends, the scope should be expanded to include areas like DNA (Data, Networks, and AI), and tax incentives should be strengthened to strategically foster related industries.

It was also suggested that intelligent semiconductors, which add computational functions to existing semiconductors, be recognized as next-generation memory semiconductors, one of the national strategic technologies.

In addition, it was revealed that tasks such as OTA, expansion of offset emissions under the greenhouse gas emissions trading system, and realization of standards for waste plastic pyrolysis oil products were selected as tasks that can be immediately improved.