South Korea Democratic Party proposes dual versions of Super-Regional Special Zone Act

The Democratic Party of Korea has introduced two separate versions of the ‘Super-Regional Special Zone Act’ to support three major mega-projects involving semiconductors, AI data centers, and physical AI. The legislative strategy aims to address the tension between industrial competitiveness and labor rights by offering two distinct paths for parliamentary review.

One version of the bill includes a ‘white-collar exemption’ clause, which would allow high-income research and development workers to negotiate working hours outside the standard 52-hour workweek. The second version excludes this labor exception to mitigate backlash from labor unions. The party plans to merge the two versions into a final proposal following a period of social dialogue and deliberation.

The act seeks to combat regional extinction by providing extensive fiscal, financial, and tax support, alongside infrastructure development and regulatory easing for strategic industrial clusters, such as the Honam semiconductor cluster.