Lee So-young vows to be 'minister of deregulation' as first 1980s-born minister nominee

Lee So-young, nominee for minister of SMEs and Startups, said Monday she would dedicate herself to easing regulation, pledging to act not merely as a minister supporting small businesses but as a "minister of deregulation."

Speaking to reporters at the Korea Technology and Information Promotion Agency for SMEs (TIPA) in Yeouido, Seoul, Lee said ventures and startups see their ideas die the moment they hit regulatory walls, no matter how much mentoring and support entrepreneurs receive.

"Regulation is the single biggest obstacle to innovation — to creating new products and services," she said. "I will make sure new industries and existing ones do not collide, so that something like the Tada incident never happens again."

Her nomination is also expected to end a two-month leadership vacuum at the ministry. Lee will inherit a full agenda, including reviving the business conditions of small and medium-sized enterprises and self-employed owners, and reinvigorating the venture and startup ecosystem.

Lee's selection stands out in the latest Cabinet reshuffle as a symbol of generational renewal. Born in 1985, she would become the first minister in South Korean constitutional history born in the 1980s if confirmed by the National Assembly. At 41 this year, she would also be the youngest minister to lead the ministry since it was established in 2017.

Lee is a two-term lawmaker and attorney who graduated from Sungkyunkwan University's law school. She worked at Kim & Chang before moving into climate and environmental advocacy, entered the National Assembly in 2020 and won re-election in 2024. In the 21st Assembly she served on the Trade, Industry, Energy, SMEs and Startups Committee, and in the 22nd Assembly she joined Unicorn Farm, a bipartisan research group focused on startups and venture companies.

The Ministry of SMEs and Startups is set to have yet another female minister. If confirmed, five of the ministry's seven ministers to date will have been women, making Lee the fourth consecutive female minister since former Minister Lee Young. The trend has drawn mixed reactions, however. While some welcome it as a sign of greater Cabinet diversity, others have criticized the pattern — arguing that repeatedly filling the post with women based on gender balance suggests the ministry is viewed as relatively less important than others.

Symbolism aside, the challenges awaiting Lee after confirmation are substantial. Since Prime Minister Han Seong-sook stepped down as SMEs minister on June 30, a two-month leadership gap has allowed a backlog of pressing issues to accumulate — from helping small businesses and self-employed owners recover to reinvigorating the venture and startup ecosystem.

Most immediately, Lee will need to support the recovery of small businesses and self-employed owners struggling with weak domestic demand and rising costs. Helping small and medium-sized enterprises keep pace with a rapidly changing industrial landscape — through digital and AI transformation and productivity improvements — will also be a priority.

In the venture and startup sector, she will need to attract more private capital into an investment market that has recently shown signs of recovery, while accelerating the scaling-up of domestic startups and their expansion overseas. Ensuring the stable operation of the "Everyone's Startup Project" and building a follow-up support framework are also on the agenda.

Regarding these challenges, Lee said that if past SMEs policy had been centered on support, what is now needed is policy that opens new paths to growth. "I will also think creatively about how to ease the hardships of self-employed people in a rapidly changing business environment," she said.