Methodological Evolution and Issues of Regional Development Planning in Korea

Abstract

This paper is primarily an attempt at reviewing how regional development planning methodologies have evolved over the last twenty years in Korea and what same salient lessons could be drawn for improving the method of planning for regional development. Although regional development efforts have been intensified both by government agencies and academic circle, methodology or the way of coping with these efforts has largely remained unimproved, and theoretical construe for the development of new methodological breakthrough has been still experimental. This is a very challenging task waiting to be solved. Given a state of art in dealing with informational requirements for regional development planning, most countries are facing with more difficulties than ever, as a rising expectation fulfilled by regional development has added its scope and complexities. In Korea, elsewhere in the world to a degree, regional planning exercise deeply rooted in the tradition of physical planning. But, today, all the complexities which are usually involved with social, economic, institutional considerations are to be housed under the theoretical shell in the course of regional development, but very few useful methodologies are available, while leaving a large proportion of practitioners to work on a sort of common sense approach.