Park Chung Hee

Park launched South Korea's heavy and chemical industry drive in 1973, directing finance and incentives towards selected sectors such as steel, machinery and chemicals. The state steered investment while large private business groups remained central to production. This is a useful case of industrial coordination without blanket nationalisation. Expanding industrial capacity must be weighed against concentrated economic power and the costs of intervention; the programme operated within an authoritarian political system, not a neutral technocratic vacuum.