What are innovative solutions that can guarantee the future of regions? This colloquium was held to maximize the potentiality of innovative growth in regions and to seek the strategies to prepare the foundation of self-sustainable growth.

KISTEP, Busan Innovation Institute of Industry, Science & Technology Planing (BISTEP), and Korea Technology Innovation Society (KOTIS) held the 5th National Innovation System (NIS) Policy Colloquium under the theme of “Strategies and Challenges to Overcome the Crisis of Regional Disparity and Innovative Growth” on August 29th (Thu), 2019.

This event under the theme of “Strategies and Challenges to Overcome the Crisis of Regional Disparity and Innovative Growth” was designed to suggest preconditions and progress directions for creating innovative growth engines in regions and accelerating region-led innovative growth.

The presentations consisted of (1) Strategies and challenges of innovative growth in regions to overcome regional disparity (Jang-Jae Lee, Director, Research Institute of S&T Innovation and Strategy, KISTEP), (2) Preconditions and progress directions for innovative growth in regions (Jae-Hong Jang, Director, Industrial Location Research Institute, Korea Industrial Complex Corporation(KICOX)), (3) Cases and implications of Busan to develop virtuous circle of science technology and local industries (Ho Kim, Director, Strategic planning division, BISTEP) and experts discussion followed.



 

 

▲ Jang-Jae Lee (Director, Research Institute of S&T Innovation and Strategy, KISTEP)

Director Jang-Jae Lee said that we are in the era of 4th industrial revolution represented by super-intelligence, hyper-connectivity, and hyper-speed. Regional disparity was predicted for a long time, however, it should be treated differently now as it became an urgent fact enough to be addressed as an important issue of national space and population policy.

He also mentioned that “This is the time to prepare and implement practical and sophisticated regional balance, characterizing strategies, and various alternative policies reflecting the new periodical paradigm. So science technology innovation capability in human, physical, and spatial properties imbedded in each region is very crucial.”

Although balanced regional development is in progress as a crucial national strategy in Korea, the concentration of human, physical, and spatial properties in the capital area is intensified in the course of strengthening global competitiveness. Strategies and policy directions to be considered preferentially are ① pursuit of local talentism, ② developing regional industries and creating jobs with region-customized niche selections, ③ progress of autonomous decentralization and innovative financial autonomy, ④ strengthening science technology innovative think-tank in regions, ⑤ diagnosis and treatment of bottleneck phenomenon of regional innovation and preparation and implementation of complex alternative policies, ⑥ creation of industry-centered special innovation clusters in regions, ⑦ reinforcing and fostering entrepreneurship in regions, ⑧ pursuit of open innovation considering global environment and neighboring locations, ⑨ structuring public data system in regions and preparing data economy, ⑩ construction and realization of optimal governance of regional and local governments including stakeholders.


 

▲ Jae-Hong Jang (Director, Industrial Location Research Institute, Korea Industrial Complex Corporation(KICOX))

Director Jae-Hong Jang said that creating national atmosphere in respect of entrepreneurs, the main driver of innovation, is most crucial and emphasized that pan-ministerial policy cooperation system centered in regions should be preferentially constructed.
 
He stressed that “Strengthening government support for non-capital southern areas, Busan, Ulsan, Kyungnam, etc., where innovation capacity is still weak and local economy is unstable due to crisis of main industries, is necessary.”

 
 

▲ Ho Kim (Director, Strategic planning division, BISTEP)

Director Ho Kim presented historically the case of Busan where confronted crisis of main industries and population decrease, and introduced the progress status of Busan area to secure city competitiveness such as changing economic constitution to solve problems. Especially, he shared cases and implications of BISTEP who develops virtuous circle of science technology and industrial innovation overcoming limits of regional innovation progress and deals with crisis of regional disparity through creating jobs and new industries of the future.


 

▲ Panel discussion

The comprehensive discussion was led by Pann-Ghill Suh (President, Korea Brain Research Institute), with 7 panels of Seong jin Kim (Head, Regional S&T Innovation Policy Team, KISTEP), Si-yeong Yang (Professor, Chonbuk National University), Hee-yeon Won (Professor, Pusan National University), Suk-hee Lee (Advisor, Division of Future Strategic Planning, Province of Gyeongsangbuk-do), Jin-gyu Lee (Prior 1st vice-minister, Ministry of Science and ICT), Byung-Hwan Hyun (President, Korea Technology Innovation Society), Hye-Ran Hwang (Senior researcher, Daejeon Sejong Research Institute) and had in-depth discussion on directions for regional innovation policies.

President Sang-seon Kim said that “This is the crucial time to seek policy directions for region-led innovative growth as we are greeting the paradigm shift when innovative policies in regions are critical.” He declared that “This colloquium is expected to be a meaningful meeting to lead new innovative growth in Korea by contributing to the potential growth enhancement of regions.”


 

▲ Photo from the 5th NIS Policy Colloquium