South Korea's Korean Agency for Technology and Standards under the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy will abolish 23 certification schemes as part of an overhaul of schemes under review this year. The agency has prepared overhaul measures for 67, or 85 percent, of 79 government certification schemes reviewed this year, it said on Wednesday. The plan was reported to the ninth National Policy Coordination Meeting chaired by Prime Minister Kim Min-seok.

The government is conducting a third-cycle review covering 2025 to 2027 of a total of 246 certification schemes. It plans to review 79 schemes this year, 84 next year and 83 in 2027 in stages.

The government has operated a system to review the effectiveness of conformity assessments since 2019. Conformity assessment is an activity to evaluate whether products and services meet prescribed requirements and is commonly referred to as certification in South Korea. Some schemes have similar, overlapping or unreasonable standards that burden companies or act as barriers to market entry. The industry ministry said the number of schemes subject to review increased to 246 in the third cycle from 222 in the second cycle and 186 in the first cycle, despite consolidation efforts in the first and second cycles.

The overhaul measures consist of abolishing 23 schemes with weak effectiveness, integrating 1 scheme between similar systems and 43 tasks requiring improvement.

The Ministry of Science and ICT's "3D Printing Software Certification" was introduced in 2016 but will be abolished because certification standards and guidelines were not prepared due to an immature market. The health ministry's "Health-Friendly Company Certification" will be converted to the private ISO45001 certification after recording only 67 cumulative cases. The labour ministry's "Household Service Provider Agency Certification" will be converted to a designation and licensing system because its requirements, such as employee numbers and whether it pays the minimum wage, do not qualify as a professional conformity assessment.

The Korea Forest Service's "Wood Product Standards and Quality Labelling" scheme and "Safety Assessment" scheme will be integrated so that required certifications can be obtained with a single application because quality performance tests overlap. The Fair Trade Commission's "Fair Trade Compliance Programme Evaluation" will recognise results from the similar private ISO37301 certification and pursue a shorter processing period and a longer validity period. The Ministry of SMEs and Startups' "Inno-Biz Certification" for technology-innovative SMEs has overlapping evaluation criteria with the "Main-Biz" management-innovative certification based on the same law, and a mutual recognition plan will be reviewed.

The climate ministry's "Energy Consumption Efficiency Grade Labelling" scheme was structured so that additional model registration was possible only after registration of the base model. It will allow simultaneous registration of new and derivative models to support companies' rapid market responses. The industry ministry's "Industrial Convergence New Product Certification" will draw up measures to provide detailed information because there is insufficient information on certified companies and products.

An opinion was presented to maintain 12 schemes essential for livelihoods and safety, including "Automotive and Parts Certification" and "Children's Product Safety Certification". Each ministry will establish and implement detailed action plans for the overhaul measures. The remaining 167 schemes in the third cycle will be reviewed through 2027 to prepare overhaul measures.

Moon Shin-hak, vice minister of trade, industry and energy, said, "We will do our best to rationalise certification schemes in a way that protects people's livelihoods and safety while boosting corporate vitality and promoting technological innovation."