S.Korea to slash non-core regulations to boost job creation

South Korea planned to slash non- core regulations on business activities to boost corporate investment and subsequently help create more jobs.

South Korean President Park Geun-hye convened a meeting for regulatory reform, attended by some 160 people, including senior presidential secretaries and heads of major government ministries and agencies as well as heads of major business organizations and mom-and-pop stores.

The meeting, scheduled to last for four hours from 2 p.m. local time, will be extended if needed to listen carefully to complaints from all businessmen participating in the meeting, which was being unusually televised nationwide.

The Park administration planned to eliminate regulations on business activity to 80 percent of the current total by 2016. It means a drop in the registered regulations from 15,269 to 13,069, according to the report submitted by the Office of Government Policy Coordination to President Park.

The British-style regulatory ceiling system known as "cost-in, cost-out" system will be introduced from next year. It means if the government enforces new regulations and causes costs for companies, part of existing regulations should be removed to offset the costs.

From April, the "negative-style" regulatory system will be applied to new regulations to remove all regulations in principle except for special cases. The automatic expiration system will be adopted to let new regulations expire within five years automatically.