"Clear Limits of Regional Balanced Development Policy... Need to Foster Two Hub Cities"

Seoul National University-Bank of Korea Symposium Held

"All the youth in this land are running toward a single goal called In-Seoul. It is an urgent task for us to create cities where young people can realize their identities even if they do not necessarily live in Seoul."

[Image source=Yonhap News]

Jung Minsu, head of the Regional Research Team at the Bank of Korea's Research Department, made this remark on the 27th during the keynote speech titled 'Balanced Development Centered on Hub Cities in Response to Metropolitan Concentration' at the 'Seoul National University National Future Strategy Institute-Bank of Korea Joint Symposium' held at Seoul National University's Woosuk Economics Hall.

Team Leader Jung said, "About half of the population is concentrated in the metropolitan area, which accounts for 12% of our country's land, and 80% of the increasing population in the metropolitan area is young people, which is an unprecedented level rarely seen in other advanced countries."

He then pointed out the limitations of past regional balanced development policies. He stated, "The concentration of young people in the metropolitan area plays a significant role in the ultra-low birthrate in our country. Although the government has recognized this and implemented regional balanced development policies for decades, the focus was on supporting underdeveloped areas, resulting in insufficient investment in large cities."

He argued, "In an era of population decline, building infrastructure everywhere across the country is no longer effective. A development strategy centered on a few hub cities is a more realistic approach than allowing all non-metropolitan areas to decline."

The few hub cities he proposed as a solution are, in the case of Europe, about two per 100,000 km² on average. Among countries with high population density, Japan has three per 10 km², and Germany and the United Kingdom have six. Team Leader Jung added, "When fostering a few hub cities, it is necessary to have fewer than the 10 innovation cities established in the past. Since our country's land area is 100,000 km², two hub cities would be appropriate."

At the end of his presentation, he emphasized, "The intense competition in our country is not because society is dynamic, but because everyone's goals are the same. All the youth in this land are running toward a single goal called In-Seoul, but creating cities where young people can realize their identities even if they do not necessarily live in Seoul is an urgent task given to us."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.