‘Baekbalbaekjung’ Gyeongbuk Province! Secures 16.8 Billion KRW in National Funding from Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs Contest

'23 Basic Living Hub Development' Project ... 6 Districts Applied, All Selected

Providing interactive elderly care services using intelligent AI·IoT speakers to support the smart daily lives of elderly people living alone.

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Kim Gwiyeol] Gyeongbuk Province has been selected as the top region nationwide among 15 districts selected in the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs' '2023 Basic Living Hub Development' contest, with five cities and counties (six districts) including Pohang (Donghae-myeon), Gimcheon (Daehang-myeon, Jeungsan-myeon), Yeongcheon (Hwanam-myeon), Gyeongsan (Jain-myeon), and Seongju (Chojeon-myeon) all successfully chosen.

The Basic Living Hub Development project aims to establish supply hubs for basic living services in township centers and their surrounding villages to improve residents' quality of life through the provision of living services and capacity building.

Through this, it is expected to inject new vitality into the regions by strengthening central functions such as insufficient health, childcare, cultural, and welfare facilities.

Utilized as a space for communication and information sharing between the central area and surrounding villages through virtual space.

For the six selected township areas, a total project cost of 24 billion KRW, including 16.8 billion KRW in national funding, will be invested annually over five years starting next year after establishing basic and implementation plans.

With the launch of the 8th local government administration, continuous investment will be made in living SOC facilities and software projects that rural residents can easily experience and that directly affect their quality of life, through the selection of rural agreements (190 billion KRW), rural spatial maintenance projects (27.5 billion KRW), and the Basic Living Hub Development (16.8 billion KRW) contest projects, providing diverse and enhanced services.

To supply and deliver living services to underserved surrounding villages, a systematic digital transformation of living SOC facility services such as AI, IoT, and metaverse (virtual space) will be promoted to provide future-oriented living services to residents of these villages.

Governor Lee Cheol-woo said, “With the launch of the 8th local government administration and the approval of the basic project plan, we expect to create a Gyeongbuk-style rural area that dramatically improves the quality of life of residents through future-oriented rural living services (AI, IoT, metaverse, etc.) from township-level centers to surrounding villages.”