earticle

영어

South Korean government has taken Asymmetric development strategy focusing on ‘selection and concentration’. Unbalanced growth theory (Hirschman & Nurkse, 1953) has been taken due to the lack of financial resources for economic development in 1960s and 70s. Focused investments were made in specific regions, which had development potential, in order to maximize national economic growth. In other word, economic growth was prioritized rather than distribution. South Korean government expected ‘spill-over effect’, which means that profits of economic development in a region will flow into other backward regions. However, current data supports a hypothesis that economic divide in South Korea has been deepened during external currency crisis in 1997 and international financial crisis in 2008. Spill-over effect might hardly happen, even though the most of economic policies in South Korea are designed expecting it. On the contrary, it has been noticed that disparity in economic power between regions are growing worse due to the absorption of capital and human resources. First, this research identifies problems of the polarized and overcrowded capital region. Also, it makes alternative proposals in order to the competitiveness of the capital region and win-win situation with non-capital regions.