Research Reports
Rural Policy Reorientation Scheme for Making Livable Rural Areas
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AuthorSong, Miryung
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Publication Date2008.11.01
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Original
This is the second year report of the two-year collaborative research entitled ‘Rural Policy Reorientation Scheme for Making Livable Rural Area’, which is led by the Korea Council of Economic and Social Research Institute. The ultimate purpose of this study is to draw a number of policy tasks for rural development based on an analysis of rural conditions and a projection of rural future and in turn, to suggest a number of ways to redirect and reorient rural development policies in order to make rural areas a good places to live. Rural development policy programs and projects can be rearranged and reoriented in three areas, that is, policy objectives, contents and implementation.
Policy objectives must be redefined. While rural developments policies can still be aimed at making rural areas good places to live, concrete valuation and allocation criteria must be drawn up in detail so that limited policy resources can be utilized efficiently and effectively to make rural areas good places for living, working, resting, and ‘community sharing.’
In addition, policy contents must be thought out carefully. First, in order for rural villages to become a good place to live, policies must be targeted at establishing a service network better suited to the settlement hierarchy of households, villages, central towns, and neighboring cities rather than the village-centered improvement of physical infrastructure. Secondly, in order for rural villages to become a good place to work, local specialty products and intangible resources must be cultivated as to constitute a local industrial cluster, and at the same time, local service needs and demand must be translated into community business opportunities so as to generate extra employment and income. Third, in order for rural villages to become a good place to rest, rural amenity resources must be carefully documented, cultivated and developed into marketable products. Finally, in order for rural areas to become good places for ‘community sharing,’ education and learning programs for local residents must be improved and strengthened and also, rural in-migration must be encouraged.
However, policy objectives and contents must be adapted to diverse local conditions. A classification of rural areas into four different types reveals this possibility of various adaptation of policy objectives and contents.
In rearranging and reorienting rural development policies, changes in policy implementation are decisively important. First, perspectives and interests of local governments should take precedence over those of the central government in policy implementation. Secondly, some small-scale rural policy programs and projects must be abolished and others must be merged. Together with this abolishment and merger, a package of blanket financial assistance and policy guidelines must be extended and furnished, to local governments. Only this will prevent local governments from blindly scrambling for budget allocation and from recklessly pursuing central government directives without paying too much attention to policy outcomes. Third, a system of incentives and penalties, in conjunction with a measure for the evaluation of policy outputs and outcomes, must be in place. Finally, all relevant legal codes and regulations must be reviewed and if necessary, re-written. The Special Act on Improvement in Quality of Life, in particular, together with the Agriculture, Rural Areas and Food Industry Act and the Rural and Fishing Village Improvement Act must be overhauled.
Researchers: Mi-Ryung Song, Jeong-Seop Kim, Kwang-Seon Kim and Ju-Young Park
Research Period: 2008.1～2008.11
E-mail Address: mrsong@krei.re.kr
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