How a Seoul Suburb Raised Administrative Efficiency

The city of Uiwang in Gyeonggi Province, which drew attention by allowing bicycle manufacturer Samchuly to build a factory in one day, took another extraordinary step by issuing a construction permit in 40 minutes.

“We got an electronic proposal from Samchuly at 9 a.m. and received approval from the deputy mayor at 9:40 a.m., completing the approval process only in 40 minutes,” a city source said.

Behind the speedy approval process was the efforts of a working-level comprehensive commission comprising 11 departments, including urban housing, which is responsible for issuing construction permits, construction and traffic administration.

The city sent a firefighting layout to the fire station July 1 and finished negotiations July 2, and held negotiations on laws on the environment, waste management and streams, traffic, driveways, waterworks and sewage with the related departments.

The city made a speedy administrative decision not only because of its bid to attract large factories but also because of a greatly improved process of complaint handling from the end of last year. At the behest of the mayor, the city began to run its working-level comprehensive consultation meeting, which used to exist only in name, in December last year.

In the past, the city’s related departments when reviewing complaints held the documents for two to three days. Uiwang, however, now requires all related departments to discuss items.

The city holds a working-level comprehensive consultation meeting at 8:30 a.m. at least once every two or three days and makes a decision. It then issues permits after complementing the needed parts.

Uiwang Mayor Lee Hyung-koo said “The permit process used to take an average of 13 days and 16 hours last year, but is shortened to only nine days and five hours on average in the first half of this year.”

bibulus@donga.com