Busan is situated in the southeast of the Korean peninsula.  It is the country’s second largest city Seoul, its capital.  With about 4 million people in the self-governing metropolitan area, it is a growing shipping and retail center.  The city consistently fares well in several rankings and in Asia, it is considered to be one endowed with a fine quality of life.

Three critical factors explain Busan’s success:  history, geography and initiative. The city was far enough south that it was somewhat protected from the Korean conflict.  It also played its role as a port facility well and Busan benefited as trade grew by leaps and bounds in the Asia region.  This, complemented by its ideal location as a transshipment point among global shipping heavyweights—Singapore and Hong Kong to the south and Shanghai to its west—certainly gave Busan the economic buoyancy to grow into what is now the 4^th busiest port in the world.  Busan’s rise as a container port has meant that many global shipping companies have set up facilities in the port city, which added to its economic dynamism.  History and geography were critical, but innovation is what continues to propel the city.

As global competition continues to pressure companies to relocate to lower cost destinations—from Korea to China to Vietnam and the Philippines—there has been commensurate pressure on Busan to renew itself even though it is overshadowed by its sister city, Seoul. As a result, its metropolitan government consistently faces difficulties in asserting a global identity.  But Busan nevertheless beats the odds against her.  It innovates. Its institutions unleash the private sector to take the lead in these innovations.  For example, the Busan film festival, held since 1996, has become a major festival that highlights top-class Asian films from across the Asian milieu. As another example, while the Chinese shipping boom placed Busan favorably to reap the benefits of the burgeoning global supply chain, the city deliberately upgraded its logistics capability, sea links, and air connections, complementing the good fortune that visited it.

Busan is a city with pragmatic leadership that liberalized its governance structure, developed responsive institutions to run its infrastructure and took charge of human capital development so that the city could equip itself for yet another dimension of its development—building its creative sector.  It is not a question of if, but when Busan will boast of yet another win.