Issue Placement principles for matching relocated agencies to hub-city strengths

Summary

Linking the second wave with the five-pole strategy requires systematically matching each hub's strategic industries with the work of candidate agencies and assessing cluster potential before relocation. The report proposes three placement principles, starting with functional linkage between an agency's core mission, the hub's specialised industries and the research capacity of its flagship national university. In the first wave, agencies were also bundled by function, yet actual ties with local firms were weak, although spillovers were larger where matches were clear, as with energy in Gwangju and Jeonnam, finance and maritime affairs in Busan, medical and manufacturing in Daegu and science research in Daejeon. The second principle is scale, setting minimum standards for the number and size of agencies per hub so that private investment and public services have enough people to sustain them. The third is linkage to urban regeneration, favouring idle buildings, public land and mixed developments over stand-alone new offices, while living zones should be defined by commuting, schooling, medical and consumption behaviour rather than administrative borders.