Post by News on Apr 8, 2005 1:16:31 GMT -5
Korean option against poverty
Xayxana Leukai
A KOREAN expert says that saemaul undong (the New Village Movement project) could be an option to help the Lao government aim to abolish poverty.
Professor Dr Jeon Un Seong has brought to Laos the lessons learned by South Korea in its defeat of poverty in their country, explaining that Korea now has the worldfs 10th largest economy.
Because of the project, annual Korean GDP is now US$15,000, and is expected to rise to US$20,000 by 2008, from a starting point of only US$80 in 1965.
Before the 1970s, Korean houses all had thatched roofs, which the professor claimed was symbolic of poverty. After the country began the saemaul undong project, fast economic development greatly reduced the relative budget input of agricultural industries, but farm incomes increased.
gLaos could eradicate poverty by 2020, but it needs projects to achieve this aim,h said Professor Un Seong, who is an agriculture specialist.
In Laos most people grow rice for subsistence, so projects are needed to teach people how to grow commercial quantities. He said that Korea wants to help the Lao government do this.
Un Seong was describing the processes and outcomes of the New Village Movement and pointing the way for Lao rural communities, in a talk entitled Experiences and Lessons of the New Village Movement in Korea Rural Communities for Lao Rural Development.
Un Seong for one year travelled through 16 Lao provinces to study how the project experience could be applied. He said he found many poor villages needing urgent help, adding that at least 400 people had been helped by what he told them.
Asked whether Laos would introduce this movement, he said that it depended on the government.
The project is based on inter-community cooperation, between neighbours, villagers and all the country. The basic drivers are work, self-help and cooperation, on the principle that people should rebuild villages and the society.
Un Seong said that he did not focus only on a scholarly, theoretical approach but on empirical practices used in his country.
In Korea, the government provided 500 bags of cement and steel reinforcement to each of 33,267 villages. The government built roads to access remote areas, and the villagers could use the cement and reinforcement to build whatever each village agreed was most needed.
In this way, the government supplied raw materials instead of finance, and the people had to find the best way to join the project. The project also had a song which was broadcast on the radio every morning to encourage the villages.
Laos has 11,000 villages, and the professor said that they should first decide to abolish poverty. The government, he advised, would choose one village as an example for other villages to follow.
gI have seen villages in the Nam Ngum zone which could well take part in such a project,h he said. gMost people want to escape from poverty, but donft know how. They need advice from the government or international organisations to escape poverty.h
Source: www.vientianetimes.org.la
Photo: www.saemaul.or.kr/english/imgs/image7.jpg
laoupdate.com ;D
Xayxana Leukai
A KOREAN expert says that saemaul undong (the New Village Movement project) could be an option to help the Lao government aim to abolish poverty.
Professor Dr Jeon Un Seong has brought to Laos the lessons learned by South Korea in its defeat of poverty in their country, explaining that Korea now has the worldfs 10th largest economy.
Because of the project, annual Korean GDP is now US$15,000, and is expected to rise to US$20,000 by 2008, from a starting point of only US$80 in 1965.
Before the 1970s, Korean houses all had thatched roofs, which the professor claimed was symbolic of poverty. After the country began the saemaul undong project, fast economic development greatly reduced the relative budget input of agricultural industries, but farm incomes increased.
gLaos could eradicate poverty by 2020, but it needs projects to achieve this aim,h said Professor Un Seong, who is an agriculture specialist.
In Laos most people grow rice for subsistence, so projects are needed to teach people how to grow commercial quantities. He said that Korea wants to help the Lao government do this.
Un Seong was describing the processes and outcomes of the New Village Movement and pointing the way for Lao rural communities, in a talk entitled Experiences and Lessons of the New Village Movement in Korea Rural Communities for Lao Rural Development.
Un Seong for one year travelled through 16 Lao provinces to study how the project experience could be applied. He said he found many poor villages needing urgent help, adding that at least 400 people had been helped by what he told them.
Asked whether Laos would introduce this movement, he said that it depended on the government.
The project is based on inter-community cooperation, between neighbours, villagers and all the country. The basic drivers are work, self-help and cooperation, on the principle that people should rebuild villages and the society.
Un Seong said that he did not focus only on a scholarly, theoretical approach but on empirical practices used in his country.
In Korea, the government provided 500 bags of cement and steel reinforcement to each of 33,267 villages. The government built roads to access remote areas, and the villagers could use the cement and reinforcement to build whatever each village agreed was most needed.
In this way, the government supplied raw materials instead of finance, and the people had to find the best way to join the project. The project also had a song which was broadcast on the radio every morning to encourage the villages.
Laos has 11,000 villages, and the professor said that they should first decide to abolish poverty. The government, he advised, would choose one village as an example for other villages to follow.
gI have seen villages in the Nam Ngum zone which could well take part in such a project,h he said. gMost people want to escape from poverty, but donft know how. They need advice from the government or international organisations to escape poverty.h
Source: www.vientianetimes.org.la
Photo: www.saemaul.or.kr/english/imgs/image7.jpg
laoupdate.com ;D