A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the award of the degree of Master of Science

Thesis (M.Sc.) - Asian Institute of Technology, 1989

Recently, the project of Rural Industrial Parks (RTPs) was established by the Korean government as a means of rural industrialization policy. The primary concern of the government on the project presumably lies on the degree of R T Ps ' economic effects within the concerned areas . The purpose of the study is twofold: i) to investigate the employees' status of R TP and i i) to evaluate the economic effect of RIP, through the case study in two RTPs. Based on the result of the case study t it turned out that the establishment of R TP contribute to the utilization of laborers in rural areas even though there still remain difficulties such as the recruitment of skilled laborers, and wage level. The analysis of income effect shows that the establishment of R TP gives a considerable degree of direct income effect as it occupies 62 . g percent out of the total income effect. The calculated values of the regional employment multiplier are more than 1.5 in both case study RI Ps . Therefore , the role of R TP in the creation of employees is also recognized. As the policy recommendations for the development of RIP above al I t the priority of selection of R TP firm should be given to the types of firms which are able to maximize the utilization of both natural and manpower resources in concerned area. And for the consistent supply of skilled labor, the expansion of the vocational training institute is required.