The status and role of rural development and planning in national planning in Taiwan: from past to future
Chen KungHung
Bulletin of National Pingtung Polytechnic Institute 5(2): 41-53
1996
Document Number: 274595
The aim of this paper is to depict the relationships between rural planning and national planning in Taiwan. The first part indicates that settlement policy has a critical role in regional and national development. The second part summarizes the changes in the role of agriculture in different economic development stages in Taiwan. The third part discusses the status of rural planning in national planning. It is concluded that: (1) there is not any law or regulation on non-urban land; (2) only 'control' through regulation but no 'plan'; (3) comprehensive development and planning in county (or city) lays emphasis on rural areas and planning but it has no legitimation; and (4) the National Comprehensive Planning Law (draft), Rural Planning Law (draft) and Town and Country Law (in study) stress rural production-living-ecology as a whole and integration between urban and rural. The fourth part puts forward four important roles for rural planning: (1) comprehensive development and planning through spatial structures; (2) examination and reconstruction of settlement hierarchical systems from the viewpoint of rural, taking into account bottom-up planning method, all human needs, local socio-cultural context and decision making in specific time-space; (3) 'rural' participates in national planning and plays an active planning and developmental role; and (4) construction of an integrated rural development and planning framework.