Signal Korea's first wave relocated 153 public agencies to ten innovation cities and Sejong

Summary

In 2005 the capital region held about 47 percent of Korea's population and 48 percent of its GDP on 11.8 percent of the land. In response, the Roh Moo-hyun government launched an innovation-led regional development strategy that moved 153 public agencies out of the capital region. About 52,000 staff were relocated to Sejong and ten innovation cities, with the moves completed between 2012 and 2019. The innovation cities fall into three development types, namely downtown redevelopment in Busan, new urban extensions on undeveloped land inside Daegu, Ulsan, Gyeongnam and Jeju, and new towns built outside existing cities in Gwangju-Jeonnam, Gangwon, Chungbuk, Jeonbuk and Gyeongbuk. The report stresses that this large spatial reorganisation was designed under conditions of population growth and expanding regional cities that no longer exist.