Yeongyang-gun Achieves Finalist Status in Happy Rural Village Making Contest

Yeondang Village in Ibang-myeon, Yeongyang-gun, North Gyeongsang Province, has been honored to advance to the finals as the representative of North Gyeongsang Province in the Vacant House Regeneration category of the 12th Happy Rural Village Making Contest, organized by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs.

Yeongyang County Achieves Success Advancing to the Finals of the Happy Farming Village Contest. Provided by Yeongyang County

The Happy Rural Village Making Contest is a nationwide event held annually to discover and spread outstanding cases and to revitalize communities. The Vacant House Regeneration category focuses on identifying and sharing creative examples of utilizing unused rural spaces.

Yeondang Village has contributed to local revitalization by implementing various regeneration projects, such as creating community spaces and providing housing for return-to-farm and return-to-village residents through the use of vacant houses. For the contest, Yeongyang-gun (Yeondang Village) conducted thorough preparations, including field-centered meetings, data research, and strategic planning.

As a result, the village was selected as the representative local government in the Vacant House Regeneration category during the North Gyeongsang Province preliminaries held in June, and secured its place in the finals through the on-site evaluation by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs conducted in July.

With this selection, Yeongyang-gun (Yeondang Village in Ibang-myeon) is scheduled to participate in the finals of the 12th Happy Rural Village Making Contest in September, where representative villages from across the country will compete for the top honor.

County Governor Oh Dochang stated, "The case of Yeondang Village is an exemplary model that not only solves the problem of vacant houses in rural areas but also strengthens the cohesion of the community," and added, "We will continue to provide various support for sustainable rural development."