Rural Agreements: S. Korea Turns Rural Areas into Spaces Attracting People to Live and Work in

Sejong, 16 May 2025 — On 15 May, H.E. Song Miryung, Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, signed rural agreements with the mayors of 21 cities and counties. Both sides agreed to cooperate to create rural spaces attractive for people to live and work in. In South Korea, a county (“gun”) is an administrative unit below a city.

Under a rural agreement, if governments of cities and counties have established a rural placemaking plan based on the opinions and needs of their residents, the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (MAFRA) signs an agreement with those local governments and provides a full package of financial support for them. From 2021 to 2025, the MAFRA signed a rural agreement with a total of 96 governments of cities and counties.

Before signing a rural agreement with the MAFRA, the governments of the 21 cities and counties had established a rural placemaking plan containing the plans for diverse objectives, including improvement of rural settlement conditions, revitalization of rural economies, enhancement of ruralism, etc.

For instance, the government of Jangsu-gun (the county of Jangsu) of Jeollabuk-do (a province in the southwest of the Korean peninsula) will set up a special centre for providing integrated services of care, welfare, and education, and thus will provide one-stop services for residents such as teenagers, the elderly, and the disabled. The government of Jangsu-gun will also operate facilities, such as woodwork workshops and pottery workshops, for families to have diverse experiences in rural areas. 

The MAFRA will provide rural agreements-based support for the 21 cities and counties to carry out their rural placemaking plans as planned. The MAFRA will also establish partnerships with local governments in diverse areas and will make the utmost effort to help overcome the crisis of rural extinction and bring vitality to rural economies.