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Abstract
Incheon, Korea is an economic center that has the potential to be the hub of Northeast Asia. It has numerous trade, transportation, and logistics assets that include the Incheon International Airport, the Port of Incheon, a coastal industrial park, a customs free zone, logistics facilities, and Songdo designed to be the future center for international business and knowledge based industries. Along with this the Region has the academic talent and the educational infrastructure to become a center of higher education and research with institutions such as Inha University and others.
The Seattle area is well known for its International Airport, SeaTac and its seaports in Seattle and Tacoma; the logistics facilities in the Kent/Auburn Valley; and the higher education and research facilities, notably, the University of Washington. The area's leaders know that the Seattle region's growth and prosperity in the 21st Century will depend upon its intermodal transportation infrastructure and operations within the system - the regional transportation system's ability to efficiently move goods, materials, and people within the system whether it be from origin to destination; from supplier to customer through the various levels of the supply-chain; or from point to point within the system. Planning for the future focuses on improving the transportation system's efficiencies and infrastructure within the region, its connection to other economies mostly within the APEC region and how the system relates to logistics and supply-chain management.
Economic theory states that improved transportation systems along with a cluster of business, education, research, leisure and other socio/techno-economic activities can facilitate increased trade and economic growth within a given region. This article brings a global perspective to regional thinking as well as a conceptual framework to explore what each of these two regions are doing to create, expand, and improve socio/techno-economic facilities as well as integrate their intermodal transportation systems in order to create a regional hub that encompasses the pentaport model. This model brings together ports for air and sea transportation, business, leisure, and telecommunications facilities as well as the physical and technological infrastructure. Theoretical concepts regarding technological change, economic growth and spatial relationships are presented to help academics and policy makers better understand and analyze regional economic development processes.
Key Words: Global Trade, Intermodal, Infrastructure, Logistics, Economic...