SEOUL, KOREA - A 8-trillion-won refinery and petrochemical plant to be built by S-Oil Corp. will be allowed to go up in an industrial zone owned by the state-run Korea National Oil Corp. The government will also permit Kyung Hee University Medical Center and other hospitals to build hotels for their foreign patients.

 

The government held a trade-investment promotion meeting on May 1 presided over by President Park Geun-Hye and passed proposals to reduce regulations. It is expected the deregulatory measures would lead to more than 12 trillion won of investment.

 

For example, it opened up the 1.8-million-square-meter state-owned land plot in Onsan, near Ulsan, for S-Oil to locate a refinery and other petrochemical facilities. The company had been unable to make investment due to a lack of industrial sites.

 

The government will also help major hospitals in attracting foreign "medical tourists" by granting hotel licenses to lodgings built for the foreign tourists. Until now, the hospitals had to get "tourism hotel" licenses for their hospitality facilities. The licenses are usually given out to those hotels with dubious reputation catering to daytime visitors.

 

President Park said in the meeting, "Instead of corporations persuading us why this or that regulation must be relaxed, it is us who should be responsible for what piece of regulation must be in place and why."