Naju City Selected for 'Rural Agreement Public Contest Project'... Secures 30 Billion KRW in National Funding

[Naju=Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Kim Yuk-bong] Naju City, Jeollanam-do (Mayor Kang In-gyu) announced on the 17th that it has been finally selected as a target area for the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs’ ‘2021 Rural Agreement’ public contest project, securing 30 billion KRW in national funding.

Introduced in 2019, the ‘Rural Agreement’ is a project aimed at revitalizing rural living areas through collaboration between the central government and local governments with a shared goal.

Led by city and county governments, the project establishes rural living area development plans through analysis of rural spaces and living zones, signs agreements with the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, and supports necessary projects as a package.

In this contest, 113 city and county local governments nationwide, hoping to promote rural sector projects such as general agricultural and fishing village development projects for next year, applied, and a total of 17 cities and counties, including Naju City, were finally selected as target areas.

Previously, since October last year, the city has been establishing a ‘Rural Spatial Strategy Plan’ and a ‘Priority Living Zone 5-Year Revitalization Plan’ for the next 20 years targeting the entire rural area through an agreement with the Korea Rural Community Corporation Naju branch.

Based on close cooperation with Jeollanam-do Province, the city has operated a public-private governance system including the Rural Agreement Council, administrative and private councils, and the Rural Agreement Committee to establish a solid plan, conducting expert consultations, resident surveys, and detailed analyses of resident movement patterns and traffic volumes.

Through this, a rural spatial strategy plan centered on three living zones?‘Yeongsangang Riverside,’ ‘Old Downtown,’ and ‘Innovation City’?was derived for the period from next year to 2041.

Additionally, through analysis based on centrality, urgency, accessibility, and feasibility for each of the three living zones, the relatively underdeveloped ‘Yeongsangang Riverside Living Zone’ (Seji, Wanggok, Bannam, Gongsan, Donggang-myeon) was designated as the priority living zone.

For the priority living zone, the plan is to promote 17 projects including rural hub revitalization and basic living base establishment projects over five years from next year to 2026, with a total scale of 43 billion KRW including 30 billion KRW in national funding.

The city plans to finalize the project by the end of this year through supplementary work based on expert and governance consultations, as well as collecting opinions, reviewing, and approval processes from the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, and to officially launch the project by signing an agreement with the ministry in the first half of next year.

Mayor Kang In-gyu said, “Through the agreement with the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, we will focus investments from the central government and local governments in line with the direction of regional rural development to achieve our common goals,” adding, “We will actively promote the revitalization of rural living areas and improvement of residents’ quality of life by reinforcing dedicated organizations for systematic promotion of the Rural Agreement project and establishing a public-private governance system.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.