Reshaping Regional Policy

Book excerpt: The book first examines some radical new directions in Korea's regional policies instigated by the newly established permanent Presidential Commission of Regional Development. The existing nine provinces and seven 'Special Cities' (i.e. metropolitan areas), will yield considerable power and budget authority to seven new mega-regions. Many of the ideas behind the new policies (such as territorial cohesion, regional innovation and regional competitiveness) were inspired from abroad, especially Europe. There are also changes at the lower urban scale to modify Korea's traditional top-down strategies. Previous policies, named ?balanced national development', were targeted at undermining Seoul by redistributing activities, including government, to other parts of the country under the zero sum game assumption. The new policies aim to benefit both the Capital Region and other mega-regions under a ?win-win' assumption. The book evaluates these approaches. Original contributions from some of the field's foremost scholars - including Sang-Chuel Choe, Sir Peter Hall, Andreas Faludi, Michael Storper, Takashi Onishi, Maryann Feldman and Sam Ock Park - identify priorities for territorial integration, develop ideas for crossborder cooperation, discuss EU policy and policies for overall regional competitiveness, examine the construction of regional entrepreneurial advantage and consider fiscal policy and decision-making.