Trend A triple burden of capital-region concentration, regional industrial crisis and rapid demographic change

Summary

The plan describes Korea's regions as facing a triple burden that amounts to a national crisis. The three elements are the concentration of people and activity in the capital region, a crisis in regional industries and a rapid shift in the population structure. The plan links these pressures to the declining share of non-capital regions in national output. It argues that existing balanced development policy, which treated non-capital regions mainly as objects of consideration, has not reversed the trend. The plan therefore calls for regions to become the main agents of national growth, supported by stronger decentralisation.