Gov't to help quake survivors get licenses

Ministries and agencies that oversee occupational licenses have been asked to be flexible in helping survivors of the March disaster.

The Internal Affairs Ministry has received many complaints and inquiries from survivors about getting relief in applying for licenses.

The ministry conducted a survey of 73 licenses, which have more than 5,000 applicants annually.

The results showed that no measures have been taken for 26 licenses, including ones for administrative procedures specialist and tax accountant, such as postponing the application deadline or changing the exam date.

For 46 licenses, including for first-class architect and information processing technician, those who lost their certificates in the disaster had to pay fees to have them re-issued.

The 12 ministries and agencies in charge of licensing explained that there were no legal provisions and no such requests were made.

The Internal Affairs Ministry asked them to deal with the matter beyond the conventional framework.

It said it will make more requests if necessary based on the needs of the people in the disaster-affected area.