Issue Shifting balanced development from even dispersion to selective hub strengthening

Summary

The report argues that the premises of 2005, a growing population and expanding regional metropolitan cities, have collapsed. The first wave's strategic logic of spreading a growing pie evenly therefore cannot simply be repeated under a shrinking population, falling metropolitan populations and youth concentration in the capital. Dispersion worked as a tool of balanced development in an era of growth, but in an era of decline selection and concentration in regional hubs is presented as the more realistic way to preserve a minimum base for balance. The report frames the goal as a survival-oriented balance built on stronger hubs rather than distributive balance through dispersion. It insists this does not mean accepting single-pole concentration in the capital or abandoning other regions, but rather slowing the rapid decline of non-capital areas by concentrating core functions in regional hub cities.