Daegu signs MOU with SME ombudsman to ease regulatory burdens on local businesses

Daegu has teamed up with the Small and Medium Enterprise Ombudsman to tackle regulatory hurdles facing local small businesses and self-employed entrepreneurs.

The city signed an MOU with SME Ombudsman Choi Seung-jae, a vice-ministerial-level official, at the Sangyeok government complex on Thursday, agreeing to cooperate on "supporting the growth of local small and medium-sized enterprises and rationalizing regulations."

The agreement was designed for the central government and local authorities to jointly identify and address unreasonable regulations that arise at business sites.

Under the MOU, the two sides agreed to work together on jointly identifying regulatory obstacles to local economic vitality, revising municipal ordinances that constrain business activity, establishing a permanent field-based communication channel, and sharing information on regulatory reform and best practices.

Immediately after the signing, a regulatory reform roundtable was held at the Daegu Scale-Up Hub. About 20 people attended, including Ombudsman Choi, Daegu city officials, representatives from the Daegu Creative Economy Innovation Center and local startup founders, to hear firsthand accounts of difficulties in the startup sector and discuss ways to address them.

"We will create an environment where small businesses and self-employed entrepreneurs can focus on running their operations through locally tailored regulatory reform," Choi said, adding that the office would provide ongoing regulatory consulting and policy improvement support.

Daegu Mayor Choo Kyung-ho said the agreement would serve as "a starting point for central and local governments to work together to resolve the regulatory problems that local businesses face on the ground," pledging to keep communicating with businesses and pursuing regulatory reform to make Daegu a better place to do business.