Population Strategy for Physical Activity in Korea (우리나라 신체활동 및 운동사업에서의 인구집단 전략)
-
- Journal of agricultural medicine and community health
- /
- v.30 no.2
- /
- pp.227-240
- /
- 2005
Health promotion has more comprehensive approaches in recent years. Nevertheless we accept the concept of health promotion differently, we are agree on that community is the most important field in health promotion which includes population at the aspect of health policy, individual skill and, environment. And there are a number of different approaches to health promotion. In them, 'population approaches' and 'high -risk group approaches' has the most different characteristics. 'Population approaches' is equally important or more important than 'individual approaches' for maintaining and promoting population health. Almost part of this article contents is the summary of the guideline and population strategy of health promotion in Korea, 1999 - 2005. Community based health promotion program should be reinforced, integrated, comprehensive, collaborative through efficiently utilizing community resources. Recent new orientation of community health program is integrated health program, we can find this orientation at Ottawa charter 1986. Comprehensive approaches with the determinant factors for health are essential task. Physical activity is a key health determinant. The population-health approach suggests that educating people about physical activity is not enough. Individual behavior changes are important too, but need to be balanced with strategies for environmental change. Population strategy with physical activity for health promotion should be developed through improving social and physical supportive environment, linking and integrating community resources between public and private sectors in national, regional and local level. Continuous public education and social marketing should be provided through collaborating with community physical activity organization, facilities, work-places and school for increasing concern of all the people of community about physical activity. Governments, agencies and citizens should held and participate to building movement. And the strategy that various 'active for life' program should be developed, delivered, maintained and reinforced continuously. Basically, adequate and sufficient financing, developing human resources, policies and legislation would be provided and supported fully too. At last, research development and knowledge exchange are required domestically and internationally. In Korea, we had classified the category of strategic priority of physical activity programs by environmental support, life-course approach, high-risk group approach and disease group approach for physical activity program based on community health center. Community based core programs for physical activity that includes infrastructure building and establishment of supporting environment, community campaign, health promotion education and public service announcement, physical activity programs for elderly and obesity, exercise prescription program.
Market liberalization progressing simultaneously with high and rapidly rising domestic wages has created an adverse business environment for domestic firms. Korean firms are losing their international competitiveness in comparison to firms from LDC(Less Developed Countries) in low-tech industries. In high-tech industries, domestic firms without government protection (which is impossible due to the liberalization policy and the current international status of the Korean economy) are in a disadvantaged position relative to firms from advanced countries. This paper examines the division of roles between the private sector and the government in order to achieve a successful structural adjustment, which has become the impending industrial policy issue caused by high domestic wages, on the one hand, and the opening of domestic markets, on the other. The micro foundation of the economy-wide structural adjustment is actually the restructuring of business portfolios at the firm level. The firm-level business restructuring means that firms in low-value-added businesses or with declining market niches establish new major businesses in higher value-added segments or growing market niches. The adjustment of the business structure at the firm level can only be accomplished by accumulating firm-specific managerial assets necessary to establish a new business structure. This can be done through learning-by-doing in the whole system of management, including research and development, manufacturing, and marketing. Therefore, the voluntary cooperation among the people in the company is essential for making the cost of the learning process lower than that at the competing companies. Hence, firms that attempt to restructure their major businesses need to induce corporate-wide participation through innovations in organization and management, encourage innovative corporate culture, and maintain cooperative labor unions. Policy discussions on structural adjustments usually regard firms as a black box behind a few macro variables. But in reality, firm activities are not flows of materials but relationships among human resources. The growth potential of companies are embodied in the human resources of the firm; the balance of interest among stockholders, managers, and workers of the company' brings the accumulation of the company's core competencies. Therefore, policymakers and economists shoud change their old concept of the firm as a technological black box which produces a marketable commodities. Firms should be regarded as coalitions of interest groups such as stockholders, managers, and workers. Consequently the discussion on the structural adjustment both at the macroeconomic level and the firm level should be based on this new paradigm of understanding firms. The government's role in reducing the cost of structural adjustment and supporting should the creation of new industries emphasize the following: First, government must promote the competition in domestic markets by revising laws related to antitrust policy, bankruptcy, and the promotion of small and medium-sized companies. General consensus on the limitations of government intervention and the merit of deregulation should be sought among policymakers and people in the business world. In the age of internationalization, nation-specific competitive advantages cannot be exclusively in favor of domestic firms. The international competitiveness of a domestic firm derives from the firm-specific core competencies which can be accumulated by internal investment and organization of the firm. Second, government must build up a solid infrastructure of production factors including capital, technology, manpower, and information. Structural adjustment often entails bankruptcies and partial waste of resources. However, it is desirable for the government not to try to sustain marginal businesses, but to support the diversification or restructuring of businesses by assisting in factor creation. Institutional support for venture businesses needs to be improved, especially in the financing system since many investment projects in venture businesses are highly risky, even though they are very promising. The proportion of low-value added production processes and declining industries should be reduced by promoting foreign direct investment and factory automation. Moreover, one cannot over-emphasize the importance of future-oriented labor policies to be based on the new paradigm of understanding firm activities. The old laws and instititutions related to labor unions need to be reformed. Third, government must improve the regimes related to money, banking, and the tax system to change business practices dependent on government protection or undesirable in view of the evolution of the Korean economy as a whole. To prevent rational business decisions from contradicting to the interest of the economy as a whole, government should influence the business environment, not the business itself.