Policy Issues for Integrated Approach to Rural Regional Development
The objectives of the study are to identify the issues and problems encountered in Korea's current integrated rural regional development(IRRD) program and to suggest policy remedies to cope with them. Secondary data and materials ate mainly used for the study. Since the mid-1980s, rural settlement planning has been carried out in the Republic of Korea, In the planning process,'scale of economy'perspectives and settlement policy have been emphasized for increasing the efficiency of investment. During the 1990s, rural settlement and major village development projects have been implemented under the rural structure transformation programs. Agricultural structure adjustment projects for land consolidation and sizable farming have been separated from the rural settlement and mojor village development projects. Based on the evaluative analysis for the rural structure transformation policy and program, some problematic issues were raised as follows: (a) lack of integrative control function in the program'(b) weak linkage between living environment improvement and agricultural development projects: and (c) lack of comprehensive village development planning and implementation system. The policy issues to solve the problems were suggested as follows: (a) adoption of bottom-up approach in new IRRD planning and project system : (b) projection of comprehensive development planning and project at the village level; and (c) introduction of new regional agriculture development projects such as direct payment system for farming in less favorable areas and organic farming.