Successful urban management in Seoul, South Korea: Policy lessons for South Africa

Seoul, South Korea, provides an example for South African policy-makers of the successful management of a phase of accelerated urban development. Policy issues are raised for urban management debates in South Africa from an examination of decentralization and industrial concentration programmes from Seoul and of the city's policies for land, shelter and service delivery. From an analysis of the record of Seoul a series of questions are posed concerning the dangers of ‘excessive’ spatial policies directed at attaining industrial decentralization, the possibility of adopting land readjustment techniques in South Africa, and appropriate policies for supplying shelter and services to the urban poor.