The nominee for the head of the Ministry of SMEs and Startups vowed Monday to cut back regulations on the tech industry to encourage companies to spearhead innovative technology and establish clusters for startups.

Park Seong-jin made the pledge as he pitched his plans to lead the new ministry, which was created in July, to help small and medium-sized enterprises and startup companies.

"I will make every effort to revitalize innovative businesses and create a healthy environment for SMEs and venture companies in the era of the fourth industrial revolution," Park said during a parliamentary hearing.
 

The engineering professor at Pohang University of Science and Technology pointed out that excessive regulations have hindered startups from introducing new tech-driven services and products to the market, which has lowered South Korea's global competitiveness.

"We have enough drone technology, but it has not successfully been commercialized due to regulations," Park said. "In the case of the blockchain virtual currency, South Korea has the most transactions in the world. But Switzerland is enjoying greater economic benefit because it adopted the relevant accounting system first." 

Park pledged to establish "testbed clusters" for information technology to incubate new businesses, educate professionals and conduct research projects, aiming to create "unicorns," or startup companies valued at over $1 billion.

In addition, the ministry will create new funds to help small and medium-sized companies penetrate overseas markets and provide support for the sharing of smart services to embrace the explosive growth of e-commerce, he noted. (Yonhap)