Research Reports
Monitoring the Implementation of Rural Services Standard of 2013
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AuthorKim, Kwangsun
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Publication Date2013.12.30
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Original
The rural services standard as an advanced system was established in 2011 to improve the quality of life in the rural areas. The rural services standard as defined by the President’s decree is to mean the criteria and level of minimum public services needed for people to live daily life in the rural areas, and is operated for improving the quality of life in the rural areas. The rural services standard is composed of 32 items from the 9 service sectors including housing, transportation, education, public healthcare, welfare, emergency, culture, and information & communication. Their detailed items and level of goal are publicly published by notification of the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs.
The rural services standard system has been operated for 3 years. During the time, Korea Rural Economic Institute(KREI) has annually monitored the level of achievement for the standard. KREI has reported the monitoring results to the central and local governments to provoke more active political competition for accomplishing the standard. As a result, the level of accomplishment for the standard in part has been continuously improved for the past 3 years. This implies that not only the political effect has been great but also the quality of life in the rural areas has been gradually improved after the enforcement of the standard system.
On the other hand, the standard system has brought up various problems during its operation. Problems related to the implementation system of rural services standard such as policy programs, budget, regulations, plan, and so forth have been pointed out. The adequacy of the detailed contents of the standard has been also brought up as a main problem. Thus at this point of time, it is needed to cool over the problems looking back the past years of the operation of the standard system.
Under this background, this study is to review and evaluate the results of implementation of rural services standard in each rural Sis and Guns, and in overall rural areas. Another study purpose is to analyse the problems of the standard system which have occurred in the past 3 years and to propose relevant improvement measures.
The major findings of the study are as follows. First, supply of public services have been increased by operation of the standard system. However, it is also found that the policy effect on the quality of life in the rural areas is not relatively significant since duration of the standard system has not been long enough. Moreover, majority of rural residents are not aware of the standard system so active promotion is required for the future. Second, policy function of the standard system needs to be established from the medium and long term perspective. In other words, the standard system shall play a role as not only for 5 year mid-term policy goal but also as an ultimate standard as a long-term policy direction. Third, the relevant regulations are to be amended for the standard system as not recommended but mandatory, and to be reflected in planning scheme in more concrete and detailed form. Fourth, a separate budget is needed to induce interests and active participation from the local governments in order to achieve the goal of the standard. Fifth, an independent organization is needed and reorganized not only from the central government but also from the local governments in order to promote policy efforts in achieving the standard. Lastly, the items and level of achievement are to be revised for reasonable operation of rural services standard.
Researchers: Kwang-Sun Kim, Seung-Chul Noh, and Byeong-Seok Yoon.
Research Period: 2013. 4～2013. 12
E-mail Address: yeskskim@krei.re.kr
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