Seoul Metropolitan Control Policy Innovation Research

In the process of industrialization and urbanization of Republic of Korea (ROK) since 1960s, the Seoul Metropolitan Area of ROK has been immensely grown due to urban concentration of population and industries. Consequently it caused social problems like the imbalance of population between capital area and local area, low quality of life, water pollution, air pollution, heavy traffic congestion, etc. Since 1960s ROK government has been putting efforts to resolve these social problems. For example ROK government made government plans such as"Prevention measures for Population concentration in metropolitan", enacted laws such as"Seoul Metropolitan Area Readjustment Planning Act"in 1982, revised the law in 1994, and implemented"Third Seoul Metropolitan Area Readjustment Planning"in 2006. Despite a variety of public regulations and public policies, as of the end of 2010 approximately 49 percent of the population nationwide live and work in the Seoul Metropolitan Area taking possession of approximately 11.8 percent of the ROK territory. The population concentration in the Seoul Metropolitan Area has been continued due to much more advantages of job-searching, job-recruiting, job-opportunity, economic activities.Meanwhile, due to the progress of urbanization and globalization, world economic integration and the stiff competition between the world's metropolitan areas, the needs for sustainable development, the Multifunctional Administrative City Construction, Innovation City Construction, etc., the Seoul Metropolitan Area is required to compete with advanced metropolitan areas in the world. While leading the provinces, Seoul Metropolitan Area is expected to be the one of the world-class metropolitans. Thus the Seoul Metropolitan Area is required to adapt to the era of globalization, knowledge and information, competitiveness. In Addition Seoul Metropolitan Area is expected to pursue world-class sustainable development and to lead the provinces as a growth engine for ROK, while seeking measures to co-develop the Seoul Metropolitan Area and the provinces. In order to realize the above requirements, this paper derives the results of the study through the following order and methods. This paper suggests strategies and measures to develop the Seoul Metropolitan Area and increase competitiveness for sustainable development and coexistence with the provinces based on the analysis of competitiveness and capacity in the Seoul Metropolitan Area.First, this paper examines the foreign regulatory policies and changes of the metropolitan areas, metropolitan area's economic development, issues and regulatory policies. Above all, the paper derives the social problems caused by the process of formation of the metropolitan area, the measures by the metropolitan areas for solving these problems, and the transition and development directions of regulatory policies in advanced metropolitan areas. Next, the paper derives the occurrence of the densely populated metropolitan areas and follow-up problems, also investigates the changes of regulatory policies in the metropolitan areas.Second, the paper compares Seoul's competitiveness with advanced metropolitan cities through the comparative analysis between them. Above all, the paper compares the metropolitan area with national or local areas using the evaluation indicators for the competitiveness of capital such as GDP size, a per capita GDP, tertiary industry's structure, the share of venture companies, universities and graduate schools, etc. Next, the paper analyses and compares the competitiveness of Seoul with the advanced metropolitan areas such as New York, London, Tokyo and Paris using indicators such as the city overall competitiveness, economies of scale, development level, economic concentration, economic growth, patent applications, international influence, etc.Third, the paper predicts urban development potential of the metropolitan area by measuring the capacity of the resource environment. The paper estimates the population and economic scale to accommodate of land and water resources, air and water environments, respectively. Comprehensively the paper forecasts the size of population and economic scale which resources environment of the metropolitan area can accommodate during the period of 2015-2020.Fourth, on the basis of the above analysis, the capacity and competitiveness analysis in the metropolitan area, the paper presents development directions such as the sustainable development vision with competitiveness, goals, development strategy, etc., and improved regulatory measures. Above all, the development strategies among the development directions consist of the stability of population, the improvement for quality of life, spatial restructuring, industrial restructuring, the development of new industries and the establishment regional administrative units, each containing specific details of the development strategy. Next, the regulation improvement plan in the metropolitan area is to introduce new systems to apply regulatory policies of metropolitan areas selectively to the areas which need the planned developments. In addition the regulation improvement plan is to revise the regulations of district facilities which cause overcrowding under certain conditions. In addition, the paper derives and presents the development strategies and policy implications of Chinese metropolitan areas through the study.