In order to moderate the concentration of the nation's population in metropolises, the Ministry of the Interior (MOI) plans to create small-scale regional growth cores that will help bring about the development of peripheral towns and villages and attract urban residents to return to their hometowns.
The project will help towns and villages with growth potential implement comprehensive development plans by integrating existing cross-ministerial budgets and resources to bolster the capabilities of these communities.
"Balancing rural and urban development has always been a major administrative objective of the government," Premier Jiang Yi-huah stated today after an MOI briefing on its plans in this area.
The premier noted that the MOI's program is part of the government's overall balanced development effort and will be implemented through a cross-ministerial platform. To fund the MOI plan, portions of existing budgets will be set aside and resources pooled to assist towns and villages with growth potential to develop infrastructure and specialty industries, enhance their living standards and lure urbanites to return, thus alleviating the stress on metropolises.
The MOI stated that the major focus of the project is to target towns and villages that already have development plans and the potential for a high degree of value-added growth. In the future the ministry will establish a cross-regional promotion task force to select 10 to 15 towns and villages and assist them with integrated plans covering five major aspects: industrial guidance, the work force, infrastructure development, financing and living amenities. First, these regions will develop based on their own planning, and then the central government will inject resources to shape their development in line with their regional characteristics and specialties.
Funding will come from existing resources and subsidies, with 10 percent of each ministry's budget set aside to be pooled for the plan's implementation. Thus, the government's fiscal burden will not be increased, nor will the existing subsidies doled out by various ministries be changed, the MOI emphasized. In terms of management and oversight, rolling reviews will be conducted by the cross-regional promotion task force, which will pragmatically adjust the projects as is deemed necessary.
The MOI stated that it aims to help towns and villages rival cities in terms of education, elderly care and other aspects in order to reduce the outflow of the rural population and entice urbanites to return to their hometowns.