Gyeongsangbuk-do announces seven key projects to revitalize K-local communities 상세내용
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Gyeongsangbuk-do announces seven key projects to revitalize K-local communities
date2023-02-15 05:25:33
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Gyeongsangbuk-do announces seven key projects to revitalize K-local communities
- Looking beyond dwindling populations in local communities, a major transition to living local from childbirth to retirement and beyond! -
- Gyeongsangbuk-do to establish seven key lifecycle recycle (four residential innovations + three care service innovations) policies this year -
- Laying the foundation to bring more people and keep them in local communities with four major residential innovations next year -
The dwindling population in rural areas is a serious threat to local communities across the country, but also to Korea as a country and nation itself.
In 2021, the Ministry of the Interior and Safety said 89 out of 228 cities, counties, and districts nationwide had a declining population. As 85 of them (95.5%) were outside the metropolitan area (i.e. outside Seoul and Gyeonggi-do), municipal communities, including Gyeongsangbuk-do, are facing dire outlooks that could threaten their very survival.
According to Statistics Korea, if the population decline in Korea continues at this rate, its population, which stood at 51 million as of the end of 2022, will to 38 million in 2070 and 17 million in 2700. This could mean the total collapse of Korea as a country.
In particular, the population decline in rural regions stemming from the exodus of younger generations and high suicide rates have had an immense impact on local universities and economies, eventually leading to, in effect, the extinction of local communities that could pose a threat to Korea as a whole. The outflow of younger residents from Gyeongsangbuk-do has reached a serious point. Every year, roughly 9,000 people, equivalent to the population of Ulleung-gun, are trickling out to Seoul and Gyeonggi-do.
This year, 23 elementary schools have no new students (※ 105 nationwide), and one in four schools has ten or fewer graduates. This means schools either have to stop recruiting new students, close temporarily, or close permanently.
If the decline in students continues, only 190 of the 385 universities nationwide (as of the end of 2022) will be left standing in 20 years. With the number of universities halved, local economies will also suffer, pushing local communities further past the point of no return.
Governor Lee Cheol-Woo of Gyeongsangbuk-do said, In Korea, jobs and companies are concentrated in Seoul and Gyeonggi-do, so young people are leaving for the metropolitan area in search of jobs. They aren’t willing to live or work past Yongin-si. The Governor added, The biggest cause of ‘local extinction’ is that students and young people leave for the metropolitan area and large cities to give themselves a chance at a better education, employment, and cultural activities overall. In order for young people to live outside the metropolitan area, they must be guaranteed an annual salary comparable to that of major corporations like Samsung even if they graduate from a local university and get a job at a local company, and we also have to create an environment in which they can enjoy a lifestyle on par with Seoul.
Since last year, as the Chairperson of the Association of Governors of the Republic of Korea, Governor Lee has never attended each Regional Cooperation Meeting to play a leading role in revitalizing local communities.
By forming a collaborative system with the Yoon Suk-yeol administration, Gyeongsangbuk-do is hoping to promote local autonomy, local organizations, decentralization, and balanced national development. In doing so, the Provincial Government is hoping to usher in a new era of K-local life where all Koreans can lead happy and prosperous lives.
This year, Gyeongsangbuk-do became the first and only municipal in Korea to set its sights on opening a new era of localization this year. On January 1, it created the first Local Era Policy Bureau among the 17 city and provincial governments in Korea, and on January 25, it unveiled Seven key projects to revitalize K-local communities - from childbirth to retirement and beyond in an administrative report.
Featuring four innovations for the residential environment and three innovations for its care services, the Seven key projects to revitalize K-local communities involves seven new ways to recycle a persons lifecycle.
These seven key projects include: ① Innovation in support for education, ② Innovation in support for employment, ③ Innovation in support for housing, ④ Innovation in support for marriage, ⑤ Innovation in support for childbirth, ⑥ Innovation in support for child care, and ⑦ Innovation in support for senior care.
It is an unprecedented and groundbreaking policy aimed at ushering in what Gyeongsangbuk-do calls the Local Era in which people spend their entire lives - from the cradle to the grave - in Gyeongsangbuk-do.
Governor Lee said, This year, we plan on establishing the four innovations for our residential environment. Especially in the first half of the year, we want to devise the strategic initiatives we need and the details pertaining to our plans, then secure roughly KRW 300 billion, which is 10% of the funds we have access to, by the end of the year to make sure we can start implementing our new project next year.
Saying that Gyeongsangbuk-do needs bold and revolutionary policies, the Governor explained, First and foremost, we plan to execute the four residential policies to prevent the outflow of local students and young people to the metropolitan area, and help them settle down in Gyeongsangbuk-do, and then implement the three care policies to overcome issues stemming from dwindling local populations and begin our transition to the Local Era.
First, to begin the Local Era, the four major policies to improve the residential environment in Gyeongsangbuk-do are as follows:
First, is the innovation in support of education. To make sure students graduating from vocational high schools have a chance to find a good job and become financially stable, university professors will be entrusted to teach and train individuals that companies actually need. More specifically, they will teach the theories students need in their second year, then send students on job placements in their third year to make sure companies can employ students immediately upon graduation without an additional internship period. Here, students will earn an annual salary equivalent to that of university graduates.
Moreover, students will get a chance to apply for special military positions, receive bonuses upon returning to work after military service, and earn wages at the level of major corporations in Korea if they continue their studies and get a bachelors degree in the future.
In order to develop employees sought after by corporations, universities across Gyeongsangbuk-do will create specialized departments. Each university will be paired with a city or county and create a collaborative network between its specialized department and industries promoted strategically by its partner city or county. Students in these specialized departments will receive full tuition support, and job placement opportunities at local businesses upon graduation.
Second is an innovation in support of employment. The plan is to pay wages at the level of large corporations to those employed by strategically important local companies, and to provide support for corporate growth, such as R&D, to companies that can bridge the difference in terms of their annual salary with major corporations.
Third is an innovation in support of housing. Gyeongsangbuk-do will offer housing support, including LH rental apartments, refurbishing of vacant houses, and rent support for a period of ten years to make sure that young people who are employed by the strategically important local corporations mentioned above can build a life without having to worry about housing issues.
Fourth is the innovation in support of marriage. If young people who are employed at strategic companies get married, on top of housing support and competitive salaries on par with major corporations in Korea, Gyeongsangbuk-do will offer a 10-year loan of KRW 50 million to help them start their lives as a married couple.
Innovations number four to seven include support for childbirth, childcare, and senior care. This welfare policy in Gyeongsangbuk-do aims to offer comprehensive support for its residents with three care packages: support for post-natal women, zero childcare burden, and emergency child happiness care centers.
Meanwhile, Gyeongsangbuk-do officials have identified strategic initiatives with experts from national and local research institutes in each field to develop specific actionable items for its seven K-local projects. Going forward, the Province is hoping to usher in the Local Era in collaboration with its cities, counties, local universities, and local businesses.
Governor Lee of Gyeongsangbuk-do said, We will help Gyeongsangbuk-do to pioneer the Local Era by supporting effective and sustainable policies aimed at revitalizing local communities, raising the annual GDP per capita of Korea to USD 50,000, and helping Korea become a bona fide G7 country as well as a world-class country. To do that, we need to make sure we work with our cities, counties, corporations, and universities going forward.
