Inclusive growth through Saemaul Undong in Korea

Saemaul Undong (SMU) is a ‘comprehensive community development programme’ launched by the government of the Republic of Korea in 1970 to reduce the economic gap between rural and urban areas, and subsequently extended to urban factories, schools and offices. A series of SMU projects designed and operated on the principles of ‘by the people, for the people, and of the people’ contributed to inclusive growth in Korea by performing three core tasks of human civilization through people’s capacity-building: establishing ‘governance’, accumulating ‘social capital’ and practising ‘sustainability’. These SMU projects cultivated various value chains from production to processing and marketing that increased cooperation, expanded value added, reduced the gaps between rural and urban areas, mitigated gender inequality, and contributed to inclusive growth through an equitable sharing of the benefits.

新村运动（Saemaul Undong，简称SMU）是大韩民国政府于1970年发起的一项「综合性社区发展计划」，旨在缩小城乡经济差距，后续该计划被推广至城市工厂、学校及办公场所。一系列遵循「民有、民治、民享」原则设计并实施的新村运动项目，通过提升民众能力践行人类文明的三项核心任务——构建「治理体系」、积累「社会资本」、践行「可持续性」，助力韩国实现包容性增长。此类项目培育了涵盖生产、加工至营销环节的各类价值链，提升了跨主体协作水平、扩大了附加值，进一步缩小了城乡差距、缓解了性别不平等问题，并通过公平共享发展成果推动了包容性增长。