Regulations
It has been pointed out that the Lee Myung-bak administration put more regulations in force than before, in spite of his promise to abolish them in the interest of national competitiveness.
The Hyundai Research Institute published a report on September 29, titled the Outcome and Limitations of Recent Deregulation Efforts, and said that Korea has as many regulations as less-developed countries.
According to the report, the number of regulations implemented by the Korean government showed an upward trend during the five years of the previous governments. For instance, between 2008 and the end of August this year, that of registration regulations increased from 9,753 to 14,977 based on the enforcement date, and from 11,648 to 15,043 on the basis of the date of proclamation.
Still, the quality of regulations has showed at least some improvement. The ratio of input-related regulations, which are considered to be lower in quality, fell from 87.4% to 82.3% between 2008 and 2012. That of market incentives and output-related regulations, in the meantime, went up from 12.6% to 17.7% during the same period. The research institute, however, pointed out that the government still has a ways to go all in all.
Based on the enforcement date, 2,261 regulations were newly put in force or strengthened between 2008 and last year, whereas just 258 were repealed or eased. The highest rate of increase was recorded by the Ministry of Health and Welfare (up by 385), followed by the Financial Services Commission (377), Fair Trade Commission (177), Ministry of Environment (174), National Emergency Management Agency (133), Korea Forest Service (102), and the Ministry of Employment and Labor (98).