• Journal of the Economic Geographical Society of Korea
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.96-110
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• 2009

To tackle the problem of regional economic and social disparities in Korea, the government of Roh, Mu-Hyun(2003-2007), launched a series of radical policies and programs to decentralize administrative activities of the capital region and stimulate economic growth in less developed regions, based on regional innovation systems and industrial cluster concepts. This paper highlights the Roh government's approach to reducing regional disparities, and makes some comments on the innovation cluster strategy by investigating the realities appearing in a major city, Daejeon. It concludes that many ministries of the Roh government created various competing, undifferentiated programs that were assigned too much money and energy, and drained resources from other governmental activities. In fact, very few programs show positive signs of achieving the goals of innovation in less developed regions, balancing the growth gaps between well-off regions and the rest of Korea, and generating overall economic growth for the country.

• Journal of Korean Society of Rural Planning
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.165-174
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• 2012

Development of transportation and communication technology has affected our daily life and has caused to separate residential places from working places. Particularly in rural areas, the life zones are incorporated into larger towns or urban areas due to their lack of cultural, social and economic infrastructures. Thus, the analysis of the depended region and the life zone is important for the planning of regional revitalization programs and related project. The purpose of this study is to propose a regional dependency model (RDM) using the origin-destination(O-D) matrix of commuters and compare it with the Nystuen & Dacey model for regional correlation. The regional characteristics are analysed and our RDM were tested using the commuting data on Seoul metropolitan area(Seoul, Gyeong-gi, Incheon) and Chungchung area. The regional correlation model can only explain the determination of regional interaction without considering the direction of regional correlation but our model can show the direction of regional dependencies.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.29 no.9
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• pp.974-979
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• 2007

• World Technopolis Review
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.46-61
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• 2015

There is an implicit assumption in most regional innovation policy studies that once a policy has been made the policy will be implemented. This assumption is not valid for regional innovation policies formulated in many countries. This assumption rests upon certain political and organization conditions. It is frequently said that regional innovation system in Korea is one of the successful cases because of properly established institution for the implementation of innovation policies. The components of institution for innovation are defined in this article. For the analysis of institution for regional innovation system in Korea, three aspects such as organization, policies & programs, and governance structure were taken into account. Institution for regional innovation system in Korea is analyzed with three aspects: (1) organization for policy implementation, (2) innovation policy, and (3) governance structure. Firstly, organizations for innovation in Korea are composed of three categories such as organizations for policy formulation, organizations for policy implementation and agencies for coordination. Secondly, there are two categories of policies for innovation: (1) policies for the enhancement of national competitiveness and policies for the regional innovation capacity building, and (2) policies for fostering manpower and policy for regulatory reform. Thirdly, innovation governance in Korea is composed of three layer structure: (1) top level governance which is composed of two committee, three ministries and two agencies, (2) local level governance such as one innovation related offices and one center for regulatory reform, and (3) one category of agency for coordination as a regional platform.

• International Commerce and Information Review
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.353-378
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• 2009

This paper intends to analyse the export assistance programs for SMEs(Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises) located in Gyeongsangbuk-do Province as well as to suggest export promotion policy for the local government. In order to accomplish these objectives, the present paper makes an extensive survey about export-support programs conducted by Gyeongsangbuk-do Province. The survey was rigorously made to evaluate export-support programs taken by the provincial government of Gyeongsangbuk-do and the regional firms' awareness about them. The paper utilized SPSS for empirical analysis. The frequency analysis was used to know the precision of data and its general features. The Crosstabulation Analysis was also used to evaluate firms' recognition about export-support programs and their practical use, satisfaction and relationships with the characteristics of enterprises. The results show that the local government must effectively systematize export support programs and develop export-support programs customized for the characteristics of enterprises in Gyeongsangbuk-do.

• Journal of International Area Studies (JIAS)
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.287-310
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• 2010

Developed nations are increasingly seeking to secure competitiveness in the international market through the development of human resources of workers in high value-added industries. And what is especially important in this process is the fact that workers, employers, and concerned government agencies are participating together in building and improving workers' skills through partnerships. This is based on the perception that workers training programs conducted according to the interest of one side are difficult to bring desired results. For the past decades, Korea has focused mostly on labor-management-government partnerships and strategies for developing the human resources of workers in developed nations in Europe. Related case studies show labor-management-government partnerships in European countries established through powerful trade unions, and interested parties actively cooperate and participate in employment and training programs that benefit both workers and employers. In contrast, studies on human resource development participated by workers and employers are relatively rare in the US, the reason being the lack of a mechanism for establishing labor-management-government partnership due to the country's strong tradition of decentralization and the emphasis on market principles. However, while it is difficult to find such channels for dialogue between workers, employers, and the government in th US on the federal level, there are many regional-level or industry-level programs that tackle common problems through partnerships between interested parties. This study analyzes how the regional labor-management-government partnerships in the US work and examines the types of programs operated by investigating the One-Stop Center based on the Workforce Investment Act and the Wisconsin Regional Training Partnership. While the One-Stop Center is a regional labor-management-government partnership model that is institutionally executed in each state according to the Workforce Investment Act, the WRTP is a regional labor-management -government partnership model led by the private sector. The two examples are introduced in the OECD as best practice examples of regional partnerships, and are key references to Korea's current human resource development policy.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.271-278
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• 2016

Background: This study purposed to analyze the relationship between regional obesity rates and regional variables. Methods: Data was collected from the Korean Statistical Information Service (KOSIS) and Community Health Survey in 2012. The units of analysis were administrative districts such as city, county, and district. The dependent variable was the age-sex adjusted regional obesity rates. The independent variables were selected to represent four aspects of regions: health behaviour factor, psychological factor, socio-economic factor, and physical environment factor. Along with the traditional ordinary least square (OLS) regression analysis model, this study applied geographically weighted regression (GWR) analysis to calculate the regression coefficients for each region. Results: The OLS results showed that there were significant differences in regional obesity rates in high-risk drinking, walking, depression, and financial independence. The GWR results showed that the size of regression coefficients in independent variables was differed by regions. Conclusion: Our results can help in providing useful information for health policy makers. Regional characteristics should be considered when allocating health resources and developing health-related programs.

• Asian Journal of Business Environment
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.1-13
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• 2024

Purpose: This study explores the level of relevance of liability of foreignness (LOF) in foreign firms' decision to relocate or to expand their regional headquarters (RHQ) in Singapore. Research design, data and methodology: The research question is: what are the mitigating factors of LOF for RHQs operating in Singapore? This explorative study uses various resources from the government agencies: Singapore Economic Development Board such as annual reports between 2012 and 2022, investment programs and published interviews with RHQ's CEOs, Singapore Department of Statistics such as economic, socio-economic and investment data. Results: My study shows that years of nation-building toward a world-class infrastructure, identifying key-industries and conscientiously enhancing workforce skills and competency, developing and reviewing investment programs to attract and retain RHQs were the mitigating factors of LOF. Conclusion: This implies a low level of relevance of LOF in foreign firms' strategic choice to relocate or to expand their regional headquarters to Singapore. As such, the steady growth of multinational enterprises' (MNEs) RHQs in Singapore presents a challenge to the theoretical postulation of LOF positing that foreign firms are discriminated in host country-environment. As a result, incurring additional costs operating in an unfamiliar environment manifested by varying responses from the local actors. Singapore is a case in point.

• Korean Journal of Organic Agriculture
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.505-534
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• 2020

The purpose of this study is to explore the key elements of the regional innovative milieu by analyzing the role of regional innovative elements and case organizations that promoted the emergence of 'Songakdongnesaramdeul (the people of the Songak town),' and to present pertinent policy implications. For the purpose, this study set the "Songakdongnesaramdeul," a residential community organization founded for regional innovation to revitalize the village community, as a case organization from the perspective of regional innovation system theory. The result of the study showed that creating an innovative milieu through the creation of various innovation elements to revitalize the village community is crucial. Especially, this study confirmed that the existence of regional development organizations is the key element of the innovative milieu. such as case organization that contributes to regional development while promoting interaction between actors, common learning and systemization, and new value creation activities. The implications derived through the study can be summarized in four points. First, a variety of means to promote the formation of subjects in response to the public debate of the village agenda is needed. Second, it is highly important to create innovative elements, for example, organizations and programs, resources, and spaces that promote regional innovation. Third, forming a close network between various innovative resources existing in the region and establishing regional capabilities that allow to mobilize and utilize such innovative resources are important. Fourth, the establishment of a promotion mechanism such as a case organization is suggested as a major task, to revitalize the village community. Specifically, forming and revitalizing numerous private-based community organizations with regional developmental capabilities to establish local governance also has significant importance. In this vein, based on the point of view of the regional innovation system theory, the establishment of regional policies to construct a regional innovation milieu, such as creating innovative elements that can actively promote the regeneration of the village community and establishing a promotion system, can be presented as major tasks.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.37
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• pp.307-326
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• 1999

The primary purpose of this study is to analyze changes, if any, in the financial status and the intensity of health care service utilization of the regional health insurance societies following the 1995 merger of some rural and urban regional health insurance societies. Ultimately, this study is aiming at providing an empirical basis for predicting the impact of the 1998 merger of the Regional Health Insurance Program and the Health Insurance Program for Government Employees and Teachers and, further, predicting the impact of the merger of the entire health insurance programs scheduled for the year 2000. The study results did not suggest that the 1995 merger had brought about notable changes in the rate of increase in the total expenditures or the insurance payment of the merged regional insurance societies in comparison to non-merged ones. Neither did it show that the merger had resulted in significant changes in the intensity of the use of health services. The study, however, found that the 1995 merger had reduced the rate of increase in the management and operational cost of the merged insurance societies. Based on these findings, some policy implications are discussed, and suggestions are made for the total merger plan scheduled for the year 2000.