Since the late 1990s, Korea has been intensively promoting its regional industrial policies. These regional industrial promotion policies are similar to the general regional policies, and also include both policies initiated by the central government as well as those created by the local governments. Recently, the participation of local self-governing bodies has increased. In particular, the targeting of a certain industry or industries has become a main measure of regional industrial promotion policy; in this respect, bottom-up promotion planning from local governments has become absolutely essential.

   In 1999, four regional industrial development plans were established. At that time, the central government established the promotion plan and provided financial support for constructing industrial infrastructure while macro-level local governments worked with the central government on selecting target industries and providing limited financing for such. Throughout the Roh and Lee governments, the participation of macro-level local governments expanded.

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