Rural and Regional Revitalization 11"Don't Be Afraid Just Because You See Local Government! Welcome the Improvement of Local Governance Capacity, Join In and Accompany
Text / Hsieh Chih-cheng (Chairman, Rural Development Foundation)
According to the "National Strategic Plan for Regional Revitalization" approved by the Executive Yuan in December 2018, the National Development Council analyzed factors such as population change rate, population size, and residents' income, and taking into account the priority of resource use and the economic disadvantages of residents in each area, selected 134 townships, towns, and urban districts out of the 368 nationwide as priority areas for regional revitalization, with the central government assisting these areas in proposing regional revitalization business proposals and promoting related business work.
These priority areas are mainly concentrated in central and southern Taiwan, eastern Taiwan, and other areas outside the six special municipalities. Among them, 62 are of the agricultural, mountain, and fishing village type, 24 are of the intermediary town type, and 48 are of the indigenous township type. The land area of the priority areas accounts for 66.5% of the nation, and the population accounts for 11.6% of the nation.
Encouraging universities to assist township (town, city, district) offices in proposing plans is indeed a good thing from the perspective of talent support; since the "National Strategic Plan for Regional Revitalization" approved by the Executive Yuan not only emphasizes the proposal process and the building of consensus, but also mentions that local governments, industry-academia-research institutions, enterprises, communities, and associations can all propose regional revitalization business plans on their own or in cooperation; therefore, given the energy that universities possess, what they can contribute is to step out of the role of proposer, stand in a higher position, and accompany everyone through the proposal process hand in hand.
Accompany and Assist, But Don't Become a "Ghostwriting Service"
However, the author must also remind that in the consensus-building process, local governments, industry-academia-research institutions, enterprises, communities, and associations that drive participation in various discussions on regional revitalization must absolutely never descend into "ghostwriting service"-style assistance.
If, through talent support and the accompanying investment of universities, local governance capacity can be bolstered, learning how to integrate all sectors can be achieved, and energy for balanced urban-rural development can be accumulated, then this wave of regional revitalization policy is a great merit!
The foundation has already begun accompanying action. You are welcome to contact us.
Including several friends concerned about regional revitalization policy from units such as the Agricultural Policy Research Center of the Agricultural Technology Research Institute, the Taiwan Association for Urban and Rural Development, the Rural Development Foundation, the Department of Bio-Industry Communication and Development at National Taiwan University, the Department of Anthropology at National Taiwan University, and the Department of Landscape Architecture at Fu Jen Catholic University, after traveling to Japan in September 2018 for a study visit to learn about policies related to regional revitalization, they have closely followed the promotion of Taiwan's regional revitalization policy.
The workshop arranged seven sessions of speeches. Kuo Fei-yu, Deputy Minister of the National Development Council, opened by introducing the National Strategic Plan for Regional Revitalization and its promotion methods. Then Chang Cheng-heng, Wang Chung-jung, and others introduced cases of regional revitalization in Japan. Finally, Professor Chen Yu-hua introduced "How to Conduct Township Population Structure Analysis." After the introduction to population structure analysis, participants split into groups to conduct population structure analysis of their own townships and raised problem points and attempted to analyze the causes. The organizer, the Taiwan Association for Urban and Rural Development, specially posted the day's course videos online for reference. The contents are as follows:
First Lecture "National Strategic Plan for Regional Revitalization and Promotion Methods," presented by Kuo Fei-yu, Deputy Minister of the National Development Council.
Second Lecture "Observations on Japan's Regional Revitalization Policy," presented by Professor Chang Cheng-heng.
Third Lecture "Case of Kasama City, Ibaraki Prefecture, Kanto Region," presented by Professor Wang Chung-jung.
Fourth Lecture "Case of Kamiyama Town, Tokushima Prefecture, Shikoku Region," presented by Director Huang Jen-chih.
Fifth Lecture "Case of Higashikawa Town, Hokkaido," presented by Research Fellow Hsieh Tzu-han.
Sixth Lecture "Regional Revitalization Cooperation Team," presented by Associate Research Fellow Chen Chieh-ting.
Seventh Lecture "How to Conduct Township Population Structure Analysis," presented by Professor Chen Yu-hua.
(Special note: The Rural Development Foundation absolutely does not intervene in or participate in regional revitalization business proposals. Based on the principle of purely voluntary accompaniment, it assists various places in promoting regional revitalization. The 134 townships (towns, cities, districts) listed as priority areas are welcome to contact us to arrange a meeting if needed.)
(In order to deeply grasp rural development and regional revitalization under the real context of Taiwan, "News & Market" cooperates with the "Rural Development Foundation" on a "Rural Development Special Topic," using a series of articles to explore Taiwan's current situation and Japan's policy trends. To read the full series, please click here.)