EIUA strengthens LJMU’s international links

20 August 2012

LJMU continues to fulfil its strategic ambitions as a civic University finding solutions to contemporary problems after the University’s European Institute of Urban Affairs (EIUA) was recently invited to provide advice to the South Korean government about urban development and regeneration.

EIUA Director, Professor Michael Parkinson, an adviser to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in Paris, was invited to support a recent major OECD report at a conference on ‘Urban Regeneration and Compact City Policies,’ organised in Seoul by South Korea’s Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs.

As keynote speaker at the conference Michael Parkinson made policy recommendations on how to make the Korean cities more sustainable as well as economically competitive. Other speakers included representatives from the US and Japanese governments and universities as well as the OECD itself.

Professor Parkinson explained: "Korea has had a 50-year renaissance in which Seoul has become the hugely dominant capital, with over 50% of the country living there . Key decision-makers from government and the private sector, wanted to learn how the US, Europe and Asia planned their urban  systems and whether and how they could support other South Korean cities outside the capital without damaging Seoul itself."

In addition to opening the OECD Conference, Professor Parkinson gave a lecture to the Urban Planning Department at Korea’s leading university Seoul National University,  presenting the results from his recent major research project for the European Commission on European cities.