A 'Village Management Office' Responsible for Local Residents' Safety and Convenience Will Be Established

Open Call Until May to Select 10 Local Governments
Providing Convenience Services, Improving Residential Environment, and Performing Roles Such as Crime Prevention Management

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Cheol-young] Village management offices, which perform roles similar to apartment management offices by taking charge of residents' safety and convenience, will be established in neighborhoods with poor housing conditions.

On the 7th, the Ministry of the Interior and Safety announced that it will create 'village management offices' in 10 local governments through a public contest. The ministry conducted a public contest for local governments to establish village management offices from April to May, and selected 10 local governments out of 21 through fair and strict evaluations by internal and external experts.

The village management office establishment project is part of seven key tasks closely related to residents' daily lives. These include the establishment of an automatic entry and exit system for emergency vehicles, installation of a shared laundry facility for small and medium-sized enterprise workers' work clothes, creation of village management offices, mobile call services for transportation-vulnerable groups, integrated solutions to reduce livestock manure odor, expansion of a simple large waste disposal system, and hope loans for local small business owners.

Village management offices will carry out tasks such as providing convenience services for residents and communities, improving residential environments, and crime prevention management. Iljuk-myeon in Anseong City faces difficulties in village management as 39% of its population are elderly living alone. Daegot-myeon in Gimpo City has a high proportion of foreign residents and many single-person households, requiring services to alleviate daily inconveniences. Yegok Village in Changwon City is located in a greenbelt area, necessitating improvements in housing and water supply due to aging infrastructure.

While village halls serve as places for residents to foster community ties, village management offices take on roles such as repairing old houses, lending tools, patrolling crime-prone areas, and providing safe return home services, offering various daily convenience services.

The Ministry of the Interior and Safety plans to inspect the operation status of village management offices and expand the target areas next year. It will also consider linking these offices with central and local government job projects such as community jobs, public work, and hope work programs.

Park Seong-ho, Director of the Local Autonomy and Decentralization Office, said, “Village management offices will perform roles similar to apartment management offices in villa and small housing cluster areas, greatly contributing to resolving inconveniences faced by local residents,” and added, “We plan to continue efforts to spread this nationwide.”