9.4
Development Strategies for the Island Region
도서지역의 유형별 개발전략에 관한 연구(RR96-23) Ki-Chul Oum, Sung-Soo Hwang, and Bum-Soo Lee
1996. 12․271 pages․Korean
The Korean peninsula has 3,153 islands of various sizes, and of these, 464 islands are inhabited, with a population of two hundred sixty thousand people.
These islands are geographically isolated and socio-economically depressed. In the last 20 years, the population has decreased by about 860,000; a rate that far exceeds the population decline in the rural mainland.
The inhabitants' quality of life and degree of regional development are still far behind the mainland areas for several reasons; poor economic conditions of the island region; failure of the small scale development projects implemented by the government to produce an economic "ripple effect"; lack of serious investors willing to sink capital into the area, and tendency for the few existing investors to concentrate on the most financially stable islands, which least need their help.
In this study, the several development strategies for the island region are suggested as follows; the central government should designate the congregate islands as the "Development Promotion District" and the other should be developed by the 'Comprehensive Island Development Plan" regarding county (gun) as a unit of development.
The central government should categorize the islands into 3 broad schemes;
Neighboring Island which should focus on coastal cities; Congregate Islands, which should pool their resources to the central island in the group; and Distant Islands, where each should strive for their uniqueness.
Expanding investment in the islands, revising the tax system, and developing incentive system for the island inhabitants are critical in promoting the regional industries and inducing external private enterprises. More financial, and institutional assistance are needed to further enhance the quality of life for islands' inhabitants.