Policy Process
2.5 One Village One Product: OVOP Principles
Hiramatsu, who advocated the process of One Village One Product: OVOP and resulted in Hiramatsu (2008, pp. 5-17)’s perspective of local development in Oita prefecture after being elected as the Oita governor as following.
The transfer from Gross National Product towards Gross National Satisfaction (GNS): This must start by raising the level of the citizen’s wellbeing through the increasing of income and self-confidence. Related to the GNP, the highest aim of transferring from GNP towards the GNS is the local revitalization under the awareness, pride, and satisfaction of one’s own way of life in the community. Therefore, it is essential to revive the locality for the young adults by allowing the local people to create what is their identity including the culture and tourism, as well as focusing on the human resource development (Hiramatsu, 2008).
The endogenous development: There are two modes of development. First type of development is the exogenous development such as the industrial development under the modern concept which depend on the external investment and resources, especially in the developing country, where the industrial-based development could not avoid the pollution problem. Furthermore, this type of development require the area with the corresponding resources for the efficient including the cost reduction. For example, Thailand was successful to attract the investment for the motor industry due to the factors of skilled labors, having enough industry within the related clusters, good supporting basic facilities, and the policy which support the industrial investment. The second type of development is the endogenous development, which is the important basis for the OVOP process, or the development which differs from the major industrial development. This type of development is small and require small amount of capital and resources, leading to the sustainable development as a result from the development within the community, from the existing root and resources. The benefit from the endogenous development would be returned into the community, unlike the exogenous development which the benefit would be returned to the investing company.
Application of Gross National Satisfaction with the society: The application of GNS does not only aim towards the economic values but also the consideration of quality of life and the existence with the nature. Both the material and spirit must correspond and support each other. Here, Hiramatsu believed that the Sufficiency
Economy philosophy and the paradigm of OVOP shares the same roots, as both approaches considered the following elements.
1) Human’s existence together with nature
2) Prosperity from agriculture and industrial must progress together 3) Equality between the urban and rural area
4) Technology transfer from the modern industries towards the local industries
5) Differences and inequalities
According to the paradigm of Oita development, Morihiko Hiramatsu who initiated and advocated the process of OVOP proposed the 3 principles of OVOP process as following (Hiramatsu, 2008).
1) Local Yet Global: This is the global thinking with the local action, by producing the products and services using the local wisdom and culture which reflect the identity and pride of the local people towards the international acceptance.
2) Self-Reliance Creativity: This is the drive behind the movement of the community members which led to the community’s success in the OVOP process, by creating the activities which depend on the capacity of the community members which allow them to think independently. In other words, these activities must came from the need of the community members, decided by the community members, and reflect the self-reliance local spirit. And the government organization should only support the technology and marketing. But financial support for the community should not be the framework for community development. For example, the Oita prefecture’s role was the promotion activities to sale the local products in the major cities. In other words, the state’s role resembles the salesman’s. This made OVOP to be more than just the encouragement of unique product manufacturing, but also include the process of community revitalization as in the case of Oyama city, which was the model for the OVOP process. After the end of World War II, the central government’s policy encouraged the farmers to grow rice. But due to the inappropriate geography, the productivity was low. So the group of villagers united and rejected the central government’s rice growing policy and grow plum and chestnut instead. The slogan
“Grow chestnut and plum and go to Hawaii” reflected the self-reliance creativity of the community members. And in 2004, the Oyama city grew 1.76 times from the year 1980,
resulting in the high income for Oyama citizen that they could leisurely visit Hawaii and other places throughout the world. Furthermore, the Oita prefecture also arranged the community shops where the villagers could sell their products. And this province shops generated over 1.6 billion yen.
3) Human Resource Development: The focus on human resource development would led to the community leaders with capacity and vision, in order to revitalize and motivate the community member towards success through challenges and creativity. This level of development is the highest goal of OVOP.
In the year 2001, the number of OVOP products in Oita prefecture went from 11 to 336 products, and the income increased from 36 billion yen to 141 billion yen.
And in 2005, the OVOP International Exchange Promotion Committee was founded to create the international OVOP network. In 2007, there were 1476 people from 46 countries who studied the OVOP process in Oita. The coordination development would lead to the mutual exchange of knowledge in local revitalization (Hiramatsu, 2008).
However, the development coordination and OVOP network must never forget that the definition of OVOP did not only refer to the product but also the thinking process as well as the service, caring for the environmental resources, maintaining the wisdom, tourism, culture, and tradition.
It can be said that the One Village One Product: OVOP concept has 3 principles for efficient project implementation as in Figure 2.5.
Figure 2.5 The Principles of One Village One Product Principles of OVOP Movement
Humen Resource Development Self-Reliance
and Creativity Local Yet
Global
When considering the related concept, although this research utilize the Multiple Streams Model, but in order to reveal the clearer picture in the comparative between the OTOP policy and the OVOP policy, the study must look at the whole process since the problem formulation towards the policy agenda process in order to see the different dimension of both policies in the broader terms than the Multiple Streams Model, which ended at the Policy Agenda. Furthermore, the researcher also utilize the concept of One Village One Product: OVOP as the important model leading towards the success of the similar policy as the comparative analysis framework for both policies during the phase of policy implementation study according to the following research framework
.
OTOP
OVOP
Figure 2.6 Comparative of the OTOP and OVOP Policy Problem
Identifica- tion and Definition,
Agenda Setting
Multiple Stream
Model
Policy Formulation
Iron Triangle
Model
Results of Analysis
Policy Implementa-
tion
Analysis by
Top-Down Approach
and Bottom-Up Approach
and Principles of
OVOP Analysis by Analysis by
Results of Analysis
Results of Analysis
Results of Commparative
Study