The Ministry of SMEs and Startups (Minister Oh Young-joo, hereinafter referred to as MSS) announced on the 22nd that it held the 'Regulatory-Free Special Zone Regulatory Exception Deliberation Committee' (Chairman Minister of SMEs and Startups, hereinafter referred to as the Deliberation Committee) to focus on deliberating on the appropriateness of special zone designation, etc. regarding the applications for designation of regulatory-free special zones and global innovation special zones submitted by nine metropolitan local governments.
The Deliberation Committee is a meeting body that conducts prior deliberation on agenda items submitted to the Regulatory Free Zone Committee (Chairperson: Prime Minister) in accordance with Article 79 of the ‘Act on Special Regulatory Exceptions to Regulatory Free Zones and Regional Specialized Development Zones.’
In this review committee, in addition to the 2025 Global Innovation Regulatory-Free Special Zone and the new Regulatory-Free Special Zone designation plan, important changes to the existing designated special zones and the follow-up progress of special zones whose designation period has expired were also discussed.
◆ 2nd Global Innovation Special Zone Designation Plan
The 'Global Innovation Special Zone' is a type of regulatory-free special zone system that focuses on supporting overseas expansion of companies operating regional strategic industries.
In order to ease domestic regulations to a world-class level and enable companies to quickly secure global technological competitiveness, ▲ in cases where domestic verification is difficult due to high levels of domestic regulations, ▲ in cases where overseas market entry is the main goal, ▲ in cases where infrastructure such as research personnel is insufficient, global innovation special zones will be designated and operated.
'For the first time in 24 years, four special zones were designated, including AI healthcare (Gangwon) and advanced regenerative bio (Chungbuk), and this review committee deliberated on three special zone plans established by local governments.
◆ 10th Regulatory Free Zone Designation Plan
Seven metropolitan governments applied for designation as regulatory-free special zones, and the Ministry of SMEs and Startups formed a subcommittee comprised of experts in each industry, regional balanced development, and regulatory fields to conduct a professional review of the special zone plans (drafts) submitted by local governments before the deliberation committee.
On this day, the deliberation committee will deliberate on the appropriateness of special zone designation based on the review results of the subcommittees and the Presidential Committee on Local Government Designation regarding the seven special zone designation applications submitted by local governments, and will submit an excellent special zone plan (draft) that is recognized for regional specialization, innovation, business feasibility, and necessity of regulatory exceptions to the Regulatory Free Special Zone Committee, which will then make the final decision on designation.
Minister Oh Young-joo, who chaired the deliberation committee meeting, said, “I hope that through the global innovation special zone, we can establish a foundation for fostering regional strategic industries by acquiring local verification and advanced technologies suited to the regulatory environments of target countries for overseas expansion.”
He also said, “Amidst growing external uncertainties such as recent tariff disputes and global supply chain reorganization, securing technological superiority in cutting-edge fields is important for companies to achieve innovative growth,” and “We will ensure that regulatory-free special zones become useful policy tools that lead to innovative growth such as overseas expansion and scale-up of our companies.”
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