President Lee Signals Push for Overhaul of Breach-of-trust Charge

On Sept.15, President Lee Jae-myung emphasized the need to abolish regulatory spider webs hindering domestic companies, saying, “Competition among nations to secure leadership in future industries such as artificial intelligence (AI) and mobility is intensifying.” At the same time, he defined the law on breach-of-trust that criminally penalizes business executives for investment failures as an “unreasonable regulation” and indicated it would be relaxed or abolished.

Lee presided over the “1st Core Regulation Rationalization Strategy Meeting” at the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST). At the meeting, which is a public-private joint platform, not only ministers of related ministries such as the Ministry of Economy and Finance and the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, but also the chief of staff, the policy chief and key secretaries of the Presidential Office all took part.

Presiding over the first meeting, Lee once again emphasized, “For growth and progress, we must innovate outdated regulations that hold back activities.” In particular, he stated, “Institutional and policy decisions should be made from a demand-side perspective, but those in authority tend to fall into inertia and think from a supply-side perspective,” and added, “We must rationalize regulations by removing or reducing unnecessary ones, while expanding and strengthening the necessary ones.”

Specifically, regulatory reforms concerning the use of public data needed for AI training, as well as information required for the development of technologies such as autonomous vehicles and mobile robots, were discussed. Lee said, “There are always crises in future industries, but if we can move one step faster than the crisis, we can take a leading position and seize opportunities,” adding, “We will also proceed with legislation.”

He also expressed his intention to ease the law on breach of trust, which is classified as an economic criminal penalty. Lee said, “I hear that businesspeople say if you make a wrong investment decision in South Korea, you could end up in prison,” and added, “Let’s undertake sweeping reforms so that decisions and judgments can be made freely.” He further said, “There is a need to improve the system from one overly focused on punishment to one that is rational, reasonable, and effective.” In addition, the government has decided to reorganize the existing Regulatory Reform Committee into the Regulatory Rationalization Committee and elevate its chairmanship to the President.

출처 : Businesskorea(https://www.businesskorea.co.kr)