Gyeonggi Province Expands Rural Sister City Partnership Program

Gyeonggi Province announced on the 11th that it plans to expand the '1 Village 1 Company' movement, a sister partnership program between rural areas and businesses, to increase urban residents' interest in rural communities and revitalize rural regions.

To achieve this, the province will link two or more companies to each rural village, focusing on approximately 420 rural tourism villages including Jangdan Bean Village in Paju, Barley Hardship Village in Yangpyeong, and Seohaeilmi Village in Hwaseong.

The province will also encourage companies to visit rural villages at least once per quarter and will provide preferential loan terms to companies actively engaged in rural exchange activities, while exempting wire transfer fees and delivery charges for local agricultural product purchases.

Last year, a total of 665 companies engaged in sister partnerships with rural villages in Gyeonggi Province, including 247 financial companies, 156 manufacturing companies, 169 public enterprises, and 93 others, and the province reported that rural household incomes increased by 5.475 billion won through direct agricultural product transactions.