ABSTRACT
Asian economies have been growing continuously, partly because of concentration of low-cost manufacturing activities in Northeast Asia (e.g. China), through the vertical and horizontal specialization of multinational corporations which are eager to extend their business networks in a global market. Busan, South Korea’s (hereinafter referred to as Korea) main port, has both benefited and suffered from such growth. Rising congestion in Busan has initiated the development of Gwangyang port further west in the peninsula, and the two ports became the objects of a national ‘two-hub port strategy’ in the late 1980s as a means to increase port capacity, balance regional development internally, and respond to regional competition from Chinese and Japanese ports. The Korean government is keeping this unique port policy to hold Korea’s regional and global hub position.
