Goyang City in Gyeonggi Province has received a ministerial award at the "2025 Local Regulatory Innovation Performance Evaluation" hosted by the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, the city announced Tuesday. Following its selection as an outstanding local government last year, the recognition reflects external acknowledgment of the city's continued efforts in regulatory reform.
Goyang was named a top-performing institution in the "city" group in an evaluation that divided 243 local governments nationwide into four groups. The city also secured 100 million won in special grant tax as a financial incentive tied to the assessment.
The Ministry of the Interior and Safety annually evaluates local governments across the country, comprehensively assessing areas such as planning, regulation identification, improvement activities and outcomes, to select outstanding institutions. This year's review was based on four evaluation categories and 12 detailed indicators.
Goyang was recognized for its strong performance in building communication platforms to resolve regulatory difficulties and in operating cooperative networks. The city earned high marks for establishing a field-oriented regulatory innovation system that goes beyond simply overhauling institutions.
Building on the achievement, the city plans to accelerate regulatory reform this year. It intends to enhance administrative efficiency by soliciting regulatory improvement proposals from all employees, identifying unreasonable laws and regulations encountered on the ground and developing them into effective reform initiatives.
"We will establish the '2026 Regulatory Reform Implementation Plan' to further refine our execution framework and strengthen implementation across the entire process, from identifying tasks to making improvements," said Park Cheon-jae, Goyang City's legal affairs officer. "We will focus on identifying tangible regulatory innovation tasks that bring real change to citizens' lives and business activities, and expand cooperation with central ministries and related agencies."
