About the talk:

Despite a short history of economic development, Korea has produced a number of leading products; the Korean economy's success is based on the technological and innovative capabilities it has accumulated over several decades.

However, a major structural weakness is the concentration of its economic power in the capital city of Seoul and its outskirts, where most industrial firms are located. In addition, eastern Korea is more industrialized than the west. This technological and innovative imbalance will lead to a gloomy outlook for the Korean economy.

Having recognized this problem, over the past decade the central and regional governments have been making great efforts to enhance regional economic and innovative potential development. Daeduck Science Town, in the center of the Korean peninsula, along with a number of technoparks are evidence of these development strategies.

Dr. Chung will present and discuss the history and characteristics of Korean regional innovation strategies for this seminar.

About the speaker:

Dr. Chung received the Ph.D from the University of Stuttgart in Germany. He worked at the Fraunhofer-Institute for Systems and Innovation Research (FhG-ISI) in Karlsruhe, Germany.  He has been a senior researcher at the Science and Technology Policy Institute (STEPI), under Korea's Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST).

In 2004, on the basis of his research work, Dr. Chung was selected as the youngest lifetime fellow of the Korean Academy of Science and Technology (KAST) (Korea's equivalent of the National Academy of Sciences). Since March 1, 2008, he has worked as Director of KAST's Policy Research Center.

In 2008 he established the William F. Miller School of MOT (Management of Technology) at Seoul's Konkuk University. Dr. Chung currently serves as Dean of the Miller MOT School.