President Yoon Suk Yeol called Thursday for quickly removing regulatory barriers to improve the public's livelihoods and spur investment and business.
Yoon issued the call as he presided over a government-business meeting on regulatory barriers affecting industrial complexes, the environment and hiring.
"Regulations are made with good intentions but they also distort markets or create monopolies and oligopolies," he said during the fourth regulatory innovation strategy meeting held at G Valley Industrial Museum in western Seoul.
"Ultimately, these regulations often hamper fair competition," he continued. "The government has until now completed around 1,400 cases of regulatory improvements and put a lot of effort into regulatory innovation. But people in the field are requiring it to be bolder and faster."
Yoon stressed that speed is of utmost importance in removing regulations and urged public officials to focus on breaking "killer regulations," a term he used last month to refer to critical regulations that deter investments by businesses.
Thursday's discussions focused on ways to reform regulations governing the use of space at industrial complexes, the production of chemical substances and the hiring of foreign workers.
The government said it will expand the quota for E-7-4 visas issued to skilled foreign workers from 2,000 last year to 35,000 this year.
Source: Yonhap News Agency