(Reporter’s Notebook) Oh Se-hoon calls for ‘deregulation’ in the new year… Will it be different this time :: Empathy Media Newsis ::

(Seoul = Newsis) Reporter Cho Hyun-ah = “Change or Die, if you don’t change, you will die.”

This is what Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon said at an executive meeting held on the 9th to discuss deregulation in the economic sector. Ultimately, what determines the rise and fall of a country lies in ‘change.’

He is extremely wary of becoming complacent without change, saying, “When you settle into a complacent perception, you gradually enter the path of self-destruction,” and “If you fail to make the necessary transformation at the right moment, you have no choice but to go downhill.” He raised this as the topic of this year’s city administration. Demonstrated strong will to ‘remove regulations’.

In fact, it is not just yesterday or today that politicians and officials have called for ‘regulatory reform’ and ‘regulatory innovation’. Regulatory reform has been a ‘regular menu item’ promoted by previous administrations whenever there is a crisis. However, there were many cases where policies that only changed their names were reused and used a third time, without any real results.

There may be many reasons why past regulatory reforms were not successful, but it is largely due to the failure to break up the regulatory cartel due to resistance from stakeholders. In the process, the passive attitude of front-line public officials, who can most closely hear the voices of the field, also acted as an obstacle to regulatory reform.

It may be unreasonable to expect public officials to unconditionally take the reins in the current structure, where there is no incentive to actively deregulate and people must take responsibility for anything that goes wrong, but there is a need to break away from ‘administrative expediency’ practices.

It is in this context that Seoul City, which is pushing for deregulation in the new year, received ideas directly from employees this month and offered incentives such as promotions and rewards.

No matter how much emphasis is placed on deregulation, if front-line public officials do not take action, the situation of only slogans may repeat. The city decided to apply ‘active administration prior consulting’ from the idea discovery stage to avoid disadvantages such as passing responsibility or unnecessary audits, and also utilize the active administration exemption system.

It’s a good start. Since Mayor Oh announced last month, “We will mobilize all of Seoul City’s capabilities to achieve a clear deregulation,” the city is showing a sense of speed by preparing the fourth plan for deregulation in less than a month.

For 100 days, unreasonable regulations in all areas of municipal administration will be received directly from citizens. Following Mayor Oh’s pledge, “I will take care of regulations within a year, not a 100-day project,” I hope to create tangible results by removing various regulations that make our lives and business activities inconvenient. .

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