On January 13 at 10 AM, the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission (ACRC, Chairperson Jeon Hyun-Heui) had an onsite foreign business grievance meeting with the European Chamber of Commerce in Korea (ECCK) to hear difficulties of international companies operating in Korea and discuss about institutional improvement issues.

The meeting between the ACRC and the ECCK was organized for an in-depth discussion on some of the policy suggestions from the perspective of foreign companies that were presented in the ECCK whitepaper 2021 published in August last year. Agenda include reasonable adjustment of the scope of excepted driver insurance coverage exemption and reduction of time required to register environmentally friendly vehicle.

The meeting was held at the ECCK office located in Jun-gu, Seoul, to listen difficulties of foreign companies in Korea, with the participation of ACRC Foreign Enterprises Ombudsman Park Gye-ok, ECCK President Christoph Heider, ECCK Vice President Kim Bo Sun and other officials.

The ACRC set up Foreign Enterprises Ombudsman system last year with an aim to resolve difficulties of foreign companies doing business in Korea that are unfamiliar with Korea’s administrative and legislative environment and to dedicatedly receive and consult corruption and public interest violation reports filed by foreign businesses in Korea. On November last year, ACRC standing commissioner Park Gye-ok was appointed as Foreign Enterprises Ombudsman.

The ECCK is a non-profit organization founded in 2012 to support European companies operating in or related to Korea. It has around 360 partners of companies or organizations and publishes a whitepaper every year, suggesting opinions of foreign companies on areas for institutional improvement.

Foreign Enterprises Ombudsman Park Gye-ok said, “As Foreign Enterprises Ombudsman, I feel a responsibility for protecting rights and interests of foreign businesses in Korea. I will thoroughly review what we discussed today, and in areas that need improvement due to excessive administrative procedures or regulations, I will do my best to make institutional improvement or resolve complaints”

He added, “Any foreign company difficulties in operating in Korea could get help from Foreign Enterprises Ombudsman.”