Gokseong County Holds Public-Private-Academic Workshop to Address Regional Disappearance

Gathering Community Opinions and Exploring Ideas

Gokseong County held the "Local Extinction Response Public-Private-Academic Workshop" on the 5th at the Gokseong Creative Convergence Education Center Dream Growth Maru, with about 60 attendees including Gokseong County officials and young farmers. Photo by Gokseong County

Gokseong County, South Jeolla Province (Governor Jo Sangrae), announced on the 6th that it held a public-private-academic workshop on local extinction response on the 5th at the Gokseong Creative Convergence Education Center, Kkumkiummaru. The event was attended by over 60 people, including department and division heads, officials, members of the public-private-academic council on local extinction response, local cooperatives, young farmers, and young entrepreneurs.

During the workshop, various opinions from community members were gathered to discover projects for next year's local extinction response fund. The event was jointly conducted by public officials and stakeholders from the public, private, and academic sectors to identify region-specific projects.

Oh Byungki, Director of the Economic and Industrial Research Division at the Jeonnam Research Institute, gave a keynote lecture on "Gokseong County's Response Strategy in the Era of Population Crisis," and provided advice on the current status of population decline in Gokseong County and strategies to secure related funding.

Additionally, the Gokseong County Local Extinction Response Team explained the 47.2 billion KRW in funds secured over the past four years since 2022 (35.2 billion KRW in basic funds, 12 billion KRW in regional funds) and the eight ongoing projects.

In the subsequent group discussions, led by the Public Autonomy Research Institute, participants held town hall meetings on five topics: residential environment, jobs, education, living population (tourism, culture, ecology), and healthcare/welfare.

A county official stated, "This workshop was a meaningful opportunity for the public, private, and academic sectors to communicate and strengthen cooperation to create a sustainable Gokseong. We will do our best to establish a fund investment plan that reflects Gokseong's unique strengths, so that the opinions of local residents and workers can lead to projects that truly benefit the region."