Gyeonggi Province's Business Registration Number Data Disclosure to Expand to Government Ministries and Public Institutions

[Suwon Ilbo=Park No-hun] The public data disclosure of business registration numbers, which Gyeonggi Province was the first in the nation to implement, is being expanded to government ministries and public institutions nationwide.

According to Gyeonggi Province on the 20th, the Presidential Committee on the Fourth Industrial Revolution designated leading institutions on this day as a follow-up measure to the agenda item of "Provision of Previously Unopened Core Data (Business Registration Numbers)" decided at the 22nd general meeting on May 13, directing the immediate promotion of business registration number data disclosure.

Business registration numbers are unique corporate identification numbers. Previously, there were many cases of misunderstanding them as personal information or trade secrets, making the transparency of public data disclosure unclear.

The Presidential Committee on the Fourth Industrial Revolution reviewed this matter and confirmed that there are no legal issues, thus deciding on disclosure.

Six institutions were selected as leading organizations for business registration number public data disclosure: Gyeonggi Province, Incheon City, the Ministry of Interior and Safety, the Ministry of Science and ICT, the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, and the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety.

Previously, the Province began disclosing business registration numbers in fiscal and contract data nationwide for the first time in September 2018, in line with Governor Lee Jae-myung's pledge that "not only the province's finances but also the data regarding finances belong to the residents."

The Province has disclosed approximately 6.13 million records including business registration numbers from Gyeonggi Province contract data concluded since 2004 and expenditure data spent since 2015, and is currently disclosing a total of 6 datasets including business registration numbers such as local food certification information status and craft business operator status.

Public data with added business registration numbers is expected to be utilized not only in developing corporate services related to business closures, suspensions, and relocations through various combinations and analysis, but also in developing innovative services targeting companies and small business owners.

For example, when searching for individual businesses such as restaurants on portal sites, it will be possible to provide services that easily show whether the business is suspended or closed.

Jeon Seung-hyun, head of the Data Policy Division at Gyeonggi Province, said, "For residents' data utilization and new business creation, we plan to proactively discover and disclose additional public data including business registration numbers through consultation with relevant government officials," and added, "We also plan to confirm whether to add business registration numbers to existing data we currently possess."