President Moon Jae-in called for swift measures to remove unnecessary and excessive regulations Monday, calling them a major hurdle to a new start for the country's economy, and for new and innovative firms.

"Regulation reform is an urgent task at least to provide a chance for our young people to freely make challenges. They may fail while making a challenge, but they will have an outcome only if they can at least try," the president said in a special meeting held at his office Cheong Wa Dae to discuss government deregulation.

The meeting was attended by nearly 60 other people, including the prime minister and dozens of other government ministers and vice ministers. It also involved top decision-makers of the ruling Democratic Party and private think tanks. 

Monday's meeting particularly sought to discuss excessive regulations in four areas, including self-driving cars and financial technology or fintech.

"Should we be unable to produce progress in areas such as smart city, self-driving cars, drones, robots and fintech that have been named new leading industries to spearhead innovation-led growth, innovation-led growth will end up being nothing but a slogan," the president said in his opening remarks, according to Cheong Wa Dae pool reports.

The president said excessive regulations were already slowing innovation in many areas.

For instance, the development of small electric cars is currently impossible due to a regulation that requires at least four seats for a vehicle to be recognized and thus be developed in the country, despite the fact that such vehicles are already widely developed and used in other countries, he noted.

"There have been cases where projects were delayed or scrapped due to regulations, or when developers had to pay unnecessary costs to meet regulations. I believe this is why regulation reform must start from listening to difficulties faced in the actual field and trying to find solutions," Moon said.

The president stressed the ongoing government efforts to deregulate was to make everything possible, at least for new technologies and products.

"The key is to first allow new industry and new technology. I ask you to reconsider the very premise that a new business is possible when there is a governing regulation. We are seeking to completely overhaul the regulation system to first allow market introduction of new products and new technologies and then regulate if necessary," he said.

The president earlier promised to introduce what he called a "regulatory sandbox" for newly emerging industries, under which businesses will only be subject to a strictly specified set of regulations for a set period of time.

Moon urged stepped up efforts to legislate a bill on the introduction of the so-called regulatory sandbox. 

Monday's meeting included a 50-minute discussion session where participants were expected to offer their views on ways to further develop new industries, and which regulations they could do without.(Yonhap)