Industrial land planning and development in South Korea: current problems and future directions

Abstract

The recent South Korean economic crisis cannot be attributed to any single sphere of public policy or blamed simply on domestic processes. Indeed, recent global market fluctuations reveal that Korea's difficulties are merely a piece of a larger jigsaw. That: said, the regulatory environment established by the central government has accentuated these difficulties. In particular, restrictions governing land development and certain aspects of banking have impeded free investment and undermined profitability. This paper is concerned with the way the regulation of industrial land use has contributed to the crisis and with the scope for minimising further economic decline through a programme of rationalisation and deregulation. A review of current land development policy, focusing on industrial parks, and the existing legislative framework is presented. Finally, we review the measures that the Korean government is currently considering and assess how they may alleviate the economic pressure resulting from the recent crisis.