Jeju Canola Flower Road and Peach Blossom Road Happy Village Contest Local Preliminary Round

(Jeju=Yonhap News) By Ko Seong-sik = Numerous villages in Jeju, including Gashiri Canola Flower Village and Andeok-myeon Peach Blossom Road, will hold preliminary rounds of the suspicious 'Happy Rural Village Making Contest'.

Jeju Island announced on the 20th that it will accept applications for local preliminary round participation villages for the nationwide contest hosted by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs and managed by the Korea Rural Community Corporation until the 10th of next month.

This year, the contest awaits residents' creative challenges in four categories: village creation, rural development, vacant house regeneration, and outstanding residents.

In the village creation category, achievements voluntarily realized by residents in areas such as income/experience, culture/welfare, and landscape/environment will be evaluated.

In the rural development category, cases of creating complex service hubs and improving residential environments will be accepted, while the outstanding residents category will receive applications for innovative cases by local activists and entrepreneurs.

Local preliminaries will select final preliminary round winners through administrative district primary evaluation and subsequent expert evaluation committee's written and presentation reviews.

Prize money includes 10 million won for the top village, 3 million won for an excellent village, 1.5 million won for the top resident, and 500,000 won for an excellent resident.

The top village and resident from local preliminaries will qualify for the central contest finals on September 17th at the Korea Racing Authority after undergoing field evaluation by the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Food in July.

Interested villages or residents can apply through the Rural and Fishing Village Regional Development Spatial Information System website (www.raise.go.kr/contest) by the 10th of next month and submit their application to the village vitality division of the administrative district.

However, villages and individuals who have won 3rd place or higher in the past three years or received government awards are ineligible to participate.

Jeju villages previously won the gold prize (Presidential Award) in 2014 at Gashiri in Seogwipo City's Pyoseon-myeon, and in 2016 at Sindo 2-ri in Andeok-myeon an