President Moon makes a field visit for regulation reforms

South Korean President Moon Jae-in has kicked off the second part of his innovation growth policy by making a field visit for the first time three weeks after canceling the regulation reforms inspection meeting last month.

“Innovative technologies need to be utilized to save the lives of patients and help them recover in points of care,” said President Moon during his visit to Health Care Innovation Park in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, on Thursday. “The starting point will be to get rid of old practices and institutions and eradicate unnecessary medical regulations.”

This was the first time that President Moon had made a field visit for regulation reform since he abruptly called off the meeting on July 27, citing its content to be insufficient, by which the president sent a warning to public society. Experts say that the president’s direction is differentiated from the previous administrations, given that he citied medical equipment as one of the best practices for medial reforms.

“The bio industry that includes medical equipment is the field where the past administrations failed to make progress despite their effort to scrap regulations,” said an official from the presidential office Cheong Wa Dae. “The purpose is to take a bold step to lift regulations in this field to drive results.”


weappon@donga.com