Gangjin-gun won the Presidential Award at the local government-sponsored Korea Local Government Management Competition. Gangjin-gun’s empty house remodeling policy, which uses vacant houses in rural areas that are being neglected to inject new vitality into the region and provides housing for households that are moving in at a special monthly rent of 10,000 won to encourage population inflow, was recognized as the ‘best’ in Korea.
Gangjin County announced that it received the Presidential Award at the ’20th Local Government Management Competition of the Republic of Korea’ held at Daegu EXCO on the 23rd.
The Korea Local Government Management Competition is the most prestigious policy management competition in Korea, hosted by the Ministry of the Interior and Safety and sponsored by the Ministry of Health and Welfare, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, etc. A total of 227 policies from 81 metropolitan and basic local governments across the country competed fiercely in 7 fields: ▲Local price stability ▲Response to local extinction ▲Support for local youth ▲Fostering local enterprises ▲Innovation of local public institutions ▲Overcoming low birth rate ▲Development of regional specialized nature.
Gangjin’s vacant house remodeling support project, which won the Presidential Award in the field of local extinction response, is a housing support project in which public officials, many of whom are local residents, and village chiefs who know the village inside out, built a database on the status of vacant houses over the course of about two years, and based on this, identified vacant houses that could be utilized and provided them to people who moved into the military and returned to farming or rural areas for an exceptionally low monthly rent of 10,000 won after remodeling construction.
When an owner of an empty house leases the empty house to the military free of charge, the military directly remodels the house and rents it out to new residents at a cost of 50 million won for a 5-year lease and 70 million won for a 7-year lease. In addition, when an out-of-town resident plans to move in after remodeling the empty house, the military provides support of 50% of the construction cost, up to a maximum of 30 million won, and in the case of newly building a house, up to a maximum of 30 million won.
Gangjin-gun has identified 381 empty houses through its own on-site investigation since July 2022, the beginning of the 8th local government, and has divided the empty houses into upper, middle, and lower grades based on their condition. Approximately 210 households in the upper and middle grades are linked to remodeling, and 171 households in the lower grade are linked to empty house demolition projects. This solves the problem of managing empty houses abandoned in rural areas and creates a stable residential environment for the influx of urban residents.
Among the 224 households in relatively good condition, of the upper and middle grades, 91 households were selected within the budget after receiving applications from empty house owners, and the empty houses were designed and built. The 34 completed long-term rental households are being operated as public rental housing under the company’s own brand, ‘Gangjin Pumae (愛)’.
Gangjin Pum-ae (愛) residents are selected through a recruitment notice for each region in the Gangjin area, and are receiving explosive interest from prospective rural residents, with an average competition rate of 17 to 1 per household. Currently, 34 households and 73 urban residents have moved into Gangjin County and entered the ‘Gangjin life’ they dreamed of.
In particular, the selection of residents was decided by the ‘Gangjin-gun Vacant House Deliberation Committee’ consisting of the deputy county governor, Gangjin-gun council members, relevant department heads, and private sector members in the housing and rural-farming sectors, which increased reliability. In addition to evaluating the number of residents, age, and economic activity, the village chief and women’s association president where Gangjin Pum-ae is located are also present during the interview screening, giving priority to harmony and coexistence with the local community. As a result, not a single problem due to conflict between local residents and residents has occurred since the project was implemented.
The Gangjin-gun vacant house remodeling support project has already been known as a ‘depopulation response policy hot spot’ by the central government and local governments nationwide, and in May, along with the visit of the Minister of Public Administration and Security, it was benchmarked by about 20 local governments nationwide. It was also introduced as an excellent example of regional vitality by the Presidential Committee for National Integration, and Gangjin-gun Governor Kang Jin-won personally gave a special lecture to heads of local governments nationwide.
The military is currently implementing a package project that provides housing, childcare, and jobs as a one-stop service, and in January 2024, it will establish a new population policy division consisting of a population and youth team, a housing support team, a job team, and a regional economy team to efficiently promote population growth.
Gangjin-gun’s childcare allowance is 600,000 won per month regardless of the parents’ income or number of children, and up to 50.4 million won is supported for children up to 7 years of age. Since its implementation in October 2022, the number of births in the county has increased by 65.6%, and the total fertility rate in 2023 will be 1.47, ranking 2nd in the country, proving its effectiveness.
The number of newborns in Gangjin-gun from January to June in the first half of this year was 93, which is the same number as the number of newborns in 2022 (93), showing an increase rate of 106.7%. Of these, the proportion of births to residents who continue to live in the region was 76%, dispelling concerns about a zero-sum game and proving a ‘net increase’.
In addition, to solve the employment problem, the government is driving population inflow through differentiated policies such as supporting the operation of the rural lodging program ‘Puso Season 2’ with 50 million won (20 million won for Puso and 30 million won for new housing construction), 20 million won for the aged paper support project, 20 million won for the rural settlement fund support, and 20 million won for the pottery development project.
Gang Jin-won, the governor of Gangjin County, said, “We will become a leader in responding to the local extinction crisis through the housing, childcare, and job package project,” and “We will do our best with a sense of mission to help other local governments that are struggling with similar concerns about responding to the local extinction crisis and population influx, and further, to lead the population policy of the Republic of Korea.”
Queen Choi Ha Na Reporter Photo Kang Jin Gun
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2024-09-23 20:49:12