Research Reports
How to Revitalize the Rural Industrial Park(RIP)
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AuthorChoi, Kyeonghwan
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Publication Date2012.12.30
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Original
The purpose of this study is to find ways in which the existing RIPs can be revitalized so that they can contribute to the development of local economy and industry. The basic direction of government policy is that new RIPs should not be built from year 2013, except the 'specialized regional RIPs' that are already built to develop the local industry. Therefore, the focus in this study is placed on revitalizing old RIPs and "specialized regional RIPs," while seeking measures to stimulate the general RIPs.
Since the start of the project to build RIPs, there have been a continuation of policies and studies carried out to revitalize RIPs. Therefore, in this study, the problems that were presented in previous researches are identified comprehensively. Also, the opinions of concerned parties are collected through on-site investigation to confirm the problems and find revitalizing measures. For this purpose, a questionnaire survey was conducted among the heads of the companies that have moved in to the RIPs and local government officials who are responsible for matters relating to RIPs.
The current environment of RIPs differs greatly from when the project was first launched. The original purpose of securing non-farm income was weakened because of serious shortage of rural workforce due to low birth rate, aging, and continued exodus of young people from rural areas. But measures should be explored to revitalize RIPs considering that they still provide many jobs to local residents and contribute to reviving the local economy. Therefore, the future policy should be placed on finding various ways to let RIPs play a central role in reviving the local economy by putting them at the heart of converging rural industries.
In order to revitalize a RIP, it is necessary to let it have a self-sustaining power with companies playing a central role. For this purpose, concerned parties should share responsibilities and the role of the central government should be readjusted. Also, intermediate support organizations should be stimulated and RIPs should be revitalized in the direction of strengthening their connections with the local industry. There are a number of measures to stimulate RIPs as a whole. First, it is necessary to identify their actual state and pending problems of each RIP. Second, guidance should be provided to make use of existing facilities instead of building a new RIP or separate facilities for incoming enterprises. Third, local governments (cities and counties) should be guided to thoroughly manage RIPs rather than doing it as a mere formality. Fourth, support should be provided so that intermediate support organizations can strengthen the network among companies which will then build an information exchange system and a mutual cooperation system to solve their pending problems. Fifth, the problems associated with the selling of companies' products should be alleviated by facilitating the conditions for preferential consumption of the products in the local area. Sixth, the current administrative guidelines which focus on constructing the RIPs should be revised so that they center around managing and providing support. Moreover, there is a need to review the idea of integrating and unifying the central government's roles related to RIPs.
There could be a number of ways to revitalize run-down RIPs. First of all, the guidelines for supporting their renovation should be clearly set out and implemented. Second, the level of support provided to waste treatment facilities of RIPs should be elevated to the level of the national industrial clusters. Third, the current administrative guidelines for RIPs are focused mainly on attracting new companies, but from now more support should be provided to the current companies that have contributed much to the local economy through such means as creation of jobs. Fourth, since the interest of the head of the local government is most important in renovating out-dated RIPs, it is necessary to explore various incentives that can attract their interest.
The RIPs for strategic regional development have been administered since 2010, but only a handful of them are in full operation. Nevertheless, it is necessary to find ways to stimulate their operation in the initial stage considering that only the regional type of RIPs will be allowed to be constructed. First, the companies should not be limited to those belonging to strategic regional industries but include those in forward and backward linkage sectors so that such a measure can increase the synergy effect. Second, since RIPs are designed to contribute greatly to the rural economy, it is necessary to provide special support that differs from the one provided to other clusters. In addition, the support should be provided in coordination with other ministries that administer similar projects.
Researchers: Kyeong-Hwan Choi, Yong-Lyoul Kim and Byeong-Seok Yoon
Research period: 2012. 5. - 2012. 12.
E-mail address: kyeong@krei.re.kr
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