Park vows to ease business regulations to boost innovation

President Park Geun-hye vowed Wednesday to ease business regulations as part of her efforts to boost innovation and take the country's economy to the next level. "I will drastically cut regulations in order to allow individuals and firms with creative ideas to develop them into new products and services," Park said at a ceremony marking the 40th anniversary of Commerce and Industry Day at the Coex business hub in southern Seoul. "Creative and innovative ideas should not die out just because they don't match reality." One of Park's key administrative goals is to combine scientific and technological innovations with industry in a way that will lead to more jobs and spur economic growth. A new government office, dubbed the future creation and science ministry, is to launch soon under her government reorganization proposal to specifically handle the task. Park stressed she will remove "partitions" between ministries to facilitate the blending of industry with industrial culture and industrial information technology, and simplify administrative procedures so that businesses will not have to go back and forth between the central government and provincial governments or between ministries simply to receive a permit. Referring to her "economic democratization" pledge, Park also said she will establish a market that ensures all businesses are rewarded fairly for their labors and have access to equal opportunities. "I will establish a new economic ecosystem in which large, mid-sized and small firms coexist," she said.