Winning governor’s prize of the Financial Supervisory Service

▲ Manager So Byeong-yon

So Byeong-yon, Manager of the National Agricultural Cooperation Federation Namyangju, is the one who recently has taken the steering wheel of 8 Nonghyup branches. He values highly of ‘engagement’ with famers and industry officials and is actively digesting a number of meeting and events held daily. Monthly <Power Korea> met him and heard his story.

Growing together with farmers in Namyangju
As soon as he took the steering wheel, he promised to promote the economic part of the local farming alongside financial support. 

“Steady flow of income is very important and we need to improve the distribution system to make sure that all agricultural products get paid due price. I will also pay attention to reducing unit price of agricultural equipment to lessen the burden of famer’s shoulders. I’m targeting to achieve US$4,722 farm household income by 2020 and listen carefully to opinions of farmers and the policy directions of the city.”

The National Agricultural Cooperation Federation started ‘mutual finance services’ from July 1969 to provide modernized agricultural fund alongside settling down the prolonged high-interest loan that tortured farmers for a long time. The Federation started to open branches nationwide from January 1970 and opened ‘joint market system for agricultural products’ in March 1974. Also notable is that the Federation carried out the ‘Sintoburi Campaign’ to spread “Korean farm products are the best for Koreans” in 1989 and organized the anti-import of rice in 1991 to protect domestic rice growers.

“The projects of the Federation are divided into three parts: education and training, economy, and finance. The education and training especially has made a great contribution to promoting talented leaders in the field while the economy has played a role to systematize production, processing, distribution and selling. The finance, on the other hand, has supported farmers with necessary fund and insurance when needed. 

Achieving US$4,722 farm household income
“In order to make it happen, we need to secure effective channels for distribution and selling. For this, we will activate a ‘united business corp’ of the Federation to support agricultural equipment for free, to support part of distribution cost, and also to promote local food and markets.”

So majored in tax accounting at Jangan University and started a career at the National Agricultural Cooperation Federation Namyangju. He promoted to the branch manager of the Federation’s Namyangju City Hall, and then to the external head and the second auditing division head of Nonghyup before becoming the current branch manager of the federation in Namyangju. He received a governor’s prize of Bank of Korea for contribution to local finance, and a governor’s prize of the Financial Supervisory Service for excellent auditing procedure in 2015. 

Volunteer activities
The National Agricultural Cooperation Federation Namyangju gave out US$33,094 to 300 farm houses who were stricken with cold-weathered cabbages in April last year. They also donated US$178,922 to 100 package making houses and 28 units of agricultural equipment to pear growing houses. 

“150 members of the Federation participated in volunteer more than 10 times a year. We signed an agreement with the Ministry of Justice andhave dispatched around 6,000 members to yearly 260 volunteer activities at probation offices in Seoul and the northern district. We will keep doing these good deeds alongside making sure of promoting rights and interests of farmers.”