NSYSU takes over Counseling Center for Regional Revitalization of Southern Taiwan

Regional revitalization is an important current national policy in Taiwan. Connecting the industry, government, and academia can help reduce disparities between urban and rural areas and solve the problems of declining functions of the rural areas and high population density in cities. National Sun Yat-sen University and its partners succeeded in taking over the Counseling Center for Regional Revitalization of Southern Taiwan of the National Development Council. This year, the Center expanded the scope of its service to Chiayi County, Chiayi City, Tainan City, Kaohsiung City, Pingtung County, and Penghu County to open up a new vision for the regional revitalization and development in the south of Taiwan.

As an important think tank in the south, NSYSU truly understands the problems and needs of the region. Since 2019, the University’s Social Engagement Center and USR projects have been actively assisting townships of the Kaohsiung and Pingtung area in promoting regional revitalization. The past years of efforts in promoting regional revitalization have demonstrated several problems the southern region is facing: insufficient manpower and professionals and the lack of overall planning and support systems. In addition, regional revitalization involves the engagement of many departments and programs, and so until now the proposals prioritizing the southern region are still less than 50% of targets of the regional revitalization policy.

To solve these problems, NSYSU has been fulfilling its social responsibility as a top university. Senior Vice President I-Yu Huang, Associate Dean of the College of Management Jui-Kun Kuo, and Social Engagement Center invited National Pingtung University, PwC Taiwan, 5% Design Action – Social Design Platform to work together and connected with 35 local partners in Chiayi County, Chiayi City, Tainan City, Kaohsiung City, Pingtung County, and Penghu County to jointly contribute to the Counseling Center for Regional Revitalization of Southern Taiwan. Such key issues as the creation of urban revitalization functions, the establishment of a revitalization-related database, and the transfer of research models can help such development directions as Internet age linkage, industry participation, digital performance, and international ties of revitalization teams in south Taiwan, and prepare and launch a more comprehensive policy counseling and mechanisms for resource importation.

The principal investigator of the project, Senior Vice President I-Yu Huang said that in the past, when he was the Executive Director of the Southern Taiwan Joint Services Center, Executive Yuan, he intensively promoted the infrastructure of southern rural areas and often visited mountain villages, concerned about local people’s needs, and that with the hardware facilities in place, there is a need to invest in software resources and creative thinking to truly drive local growth. The Co-Principal Investigator of the project, Associate Dean Jui-Kun Kuo, who is an expert in public policy, said that to create a strong social support system that would encourage young people to come back and revitalize their hometowns will help strengthen the promotion of regional revitalization; this is also the mission of the Counseling Center for Regional Revitalization of Southern Taiwan.

With the Center, NSYSU integrates the executive experience of different parties through partnerships of public and private organizations with local partners that plays an important role in building bridges of communication between the central and local. Pooling the capacity of the industry and academia brings in the resources of experts in various fields, promotes cross-disciplinary experience exchange and learning, helps regional teams in 6 southern counties and cities grow and promotes the revitalization and development of the southern region.