(Jeonju=Yonhap News) Reporter Im Chae-doo = The first specialized national institution to address and solve accumulated issues in rural areas, such as income reduction and lack of social services, will be established in Jeonbuk.
Jeonbuk Special Self-Governing Province announced on the 4th that it will establish the "Jeonbuk Rural and Fisheries Revitalization Foundation (tentative name)" in response to the crisis of rural extinction.
The province set the plan to establish the foundation in 2022 and, after going through procedures such as planning services for the establishment, feasibility review services, and establishment review, received final approval for the foundation's establishment from the Ministry of the Interior and Safety on the 29th of last month.
It aims to complete ordinance establishment, bylaw establishment, officer composition, and foundation registration by early next year and to launch by the end of the year.
The four-story building of the Rural Economic and Social Service Activation Support Center in Baekgu, Gimje, which was completed in March of this year, will be transformed into the foundation.
The functions of this center and four other institutions—the Jeonbuk Rural Fusion Support Center established in 2015, the Jeonbuk Rural and Fisheries Comprehensive Support Center established in 2017, and the Jeonbuk Agricultural and Fisheries Rural Job Plus Center established in 2019—will be integrated.
The vision is to "create a vibrant and happy rural area where everyone wants to live," with the goal of expanding community-based economic and social services.
The organizational structure will include a planning and management office, a rural vitality department, and a rural economy department under the director.
The foundation will first operate a "rural tourism platform" to inject vitality into the local economy.
It will combine rural tourism with integrated industries to increase rural income and use outreach meetings and education to guide and support the settlement of returnees and newcomers to the countryside.
It will also perform education and training designated by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, and develop social service education courses to train local activists.
The province expects that once the foundation is established, the functions of the existing four institutions, which were operated through outsourcing, will gain more publicness and improved work expertise.
Governor Kim Gwan-young said, "I understand the approval of the foundation's establishment as Jeonbuk being given a national mission to solve rural problems" and "We will create a system to deliver universal rural social services well and drive the creation of a vibrant rural area."