Deputy Minister Hwang Kyu-yeon of the Office of Industrial Creativity and Innovation at the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy

Prime Minister Hwang presides over a meeting of the first regulatory reform check-up and national policy coordination on July 30.(Photos:MOTIE)

Starting October, manufacturers’ call centers will be allowed to move into industrial complexes across the nation. 

The waiting time for the establishment of factories will be dramatically cut.

The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE) announced these and other steps on July 30 to ease regulations on the operation of industrial complex, and permits and licenses on the establishment of factories there. 

On the same day, Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn presided over a meeting of the first regulatory reform checkup and national policy coordination, in which measures to give a boost to the operation of industrial complexes were discussed. 

The MOTIE worked out the relevant steps to ease regulations. 

The revision of relevant laws would expand the businesses that can be allowed into industrial complexes, the ministry said. Currently, the service-based companies that are allowed into industrial complexes are limited to some knowledge-based companies, information and telecommunications businesses, and other businesses related to manufacturing. From now on, however, service businesses with high connectivity with manufacturing industries and promising multidisciplinary and convergence businesses will be also allowed in. Call centers, for example, will be allowed because customer service will benefit from the relaxation. 

Lending companies and multi-level marketing firms will be excluded, however. The ministry plans to revise the enforcement degrees of the Act on Industrial Concentration to allow such service businesses as advertisement agencies, call centers (except telemarketing businesses), outdoor and display advertising and maintenance, repair and operation services for business facilities and other businesses related to the support of manufacturing firms, public relations and publicity. 

Centers to support the establishment of factories charged with agency businesses for licenses and permissions on the establishment of factories and consultations are too understaffed. Some centers are manned by one employee, requiring waiting times in excess of two to three months. In this regard, the MOTIE decided to increase the manpower quota of centers with high demand. A civil service call center in the Seoul metropolitan area (1688-7277), with a flood of inquiries, will operate a pilot program and blog concerning administrative procedures (blog.naver.com/kicox12). 

Culture, welfare, education and amenity facilities will be allowed to move near factories to meet workers’ diverse demands. 

Regulations on companies’ disposal of industrial land lots will be eased. Companies are banned from disposing of land sites allocated for establishing factories for five years, a move to prevent speculative investments. But the five-year ban on the disposal of such plots will be flexibly eased. The government is seeking to ease the ban if any disposal is confirmed to have nothing to do with speculation. 

Deputy Minister Hwang Kyu-yeon of the Office of Industrial Creativity and Innovation at the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy said the tasks being discussed this time will be fleshed out in a speedy fashion, and the easing of regulations, which would have greater socio-economic effects, will be given into additional in-depth discussions by collecting public opinions and supplementary steps will be taken.