ABSTRACT
In Latin America, the need for regional development planning was widely accepted during the 1950s and the 1960s. Regional disparities had increased due to rapid urbanization and governments developed different kinds of regional policy in order to tackle the consequent problems - i.e., the rapid growth of primate cities and the congestion in metropolitan areas such as unemployment, housing problems and criminality - while simultaneously stimulating the economic growth of poor regions and increasing the level of territorial integration.
