On the 6th, Gyeongbuk Province held the "2024 Regional Balanced Development Research Forum" in Sangju under the theme "Living in Gyeongbuk, Creating a Region Where People Want to Live."
This event provided a meaningful opportunity to discuss the causes and solutions for the concentration in the metropolitan area and regional extinction that our society is currently experiencing, and above all, to listen to and debate stories of settling in regions by discovering local uniqueness and charm.
The forum was conducted in two sessions, including presentations on the Gyeongbuk case and cases from other provinces. It attracted high interest from about 40 officials in charge of balanced development in cities and counties by sharing the motivations behind creating neighborhoods where people want to live and stories of growth into representative local brands.
The artist couple 'From310' from Suwon, Gyeonggi-do, who moved to Mungyeong to farm and engage in music activities, was invited as a pre-event performance guest and presented a traditional Korean music performance featuring haegeum and percussion instruments.
The keynote lecture invited the CEO of 'Dookki Tteokbokki,' the number one tteokbokki franchise in Korea, who interestingly shared the entire process of starting the business and further energized the event by sharing various excellent cases of revitalizing commercial districts through cooperation with local residents.
Successful startup cases that have stably settled in Gyeongbuk were introduced, including 'Farm 0311' in Seongju and 'Flower Tea Social Cooperative' in Yeongyang. The CEO of 'Farm 0311,' which started through the 'Urban Youth Rural Dispatch Project,' developed an agricultural franchise model with a new rural vacation culture called Campnic at an 180,000-pyeong ranch.
The CEO of the 'Flower Tea Social Cooperative' vividly shared the process of operating exhibition spaces utilizing wild vegetables, flowers, and an old brewery, as well as the startup process of makgeolli production and sales.
Excellent startup success cases from other provinces included 'Gwaenchana Village' in Mokpo, Jeollanam-do, and 'Sesang Sanghoe' in Chungju, Chungcheongbuk-do.
Designated as a youth village by the Ministry of the Interior and Safety in 2018, 'Gwaenchana Village' transformed a decades-old inn building in Mokpo's old downtown into a space where rest and work coexist. 'Sesang Sanghoe' remodeled an old house built in 1945 in Gwana-gol, the former center of Chungju, into a cafe, and after being selected for the Small Business Activation Joint Project by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, developed local craft beer, receiving positive responses.
Gu Gwang-mo, Director of the Local Era Policy Division of Gyeongbuk Province, said, "The common factor in regions where people gather is that people themselves create neighborhoods where they want to live and can enjoy what is fulfilled, so they stay," adding, "If we create local culture by finding the unique charm and local identity of the region, an era of settling in the provinces will come."
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