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The project has been codenamed UPSURGE meaning Urban Partnerships for Sustainable Upliftment, Renewal, Governance and Empowerment.
It targets the redevelopment of eight pilot cities in the country for them to become at par with rapidly modernizing cities in Asia. The pilot cities include Quezon City in Metro Manila, the biggest in the country in terms of area and population; San Fernando City in the Ilocos Region; Valenzuela City in Central Luzon; Naga and Legaspi in the Bicol Region; Mandaue City in Metro Cebu; and Talisay and Iligan Cities in Mindanao.
Supported by the Word Bank, the project involves multi-stakeholder partnerships managed by PHILSSA and aims to institutionalize in local government units viable models for civil society-local governments-community partnerships in addressing shelter needs, improving physical and environmental conditions, uplifting social well-being and enhancing economic opportunities of urban poor communities.
Its main strategy is community planning, mobilization and implementation.
With fast-growing populations sharing limited land areas, land has become a key issue of urban development in the Philippines. This demands an integrated and coherent city land use and development planning, it was pointed out.
With the complex challenges of urban poor communities, the three major stake-holders in those pilot cities need to work together, adopt a common vision and plan for each of their community and city.
A city planning expert from the Arizona State University in the US, Professor Douglas Webster, who gave a presentation on the future of Philippine cities during the project launching, has come to the conclusion that Philippine cities have stopped being strong magnets for rural people since 1986. Population growth has slowed down to a little over two percent a year, only slightly higher than rural population growth.
This, he said, was due to the fact that local cities have been losing their competitiveness to better cities elsewhere in the world.
Unlike China and Vietnam with their strong manufacturing sectors, cities in the Philippines could no longer rely on manufacturing as their main magnet in luring in workers from the rural areas. The main driver of urban growth and development, he said will be the business process outsourcing (BPO), which, if nurtured and built to include Knowledge Process Outsourcing (KPOs), will be capable of at least growing to employ up to 1.3 million by 2016.
The new trend, he explained, is for the BPOs to locate in smaller cities outside of Metro Manila and Metro Cebu, a trend that will dramatically reshape urban systems in the country.
Another potential driver of urban growth will be tourism with many excellent destinations. But for the Philippines to move to the ranks of neighboring economies with much higher incomes from foreign tourist arrivals and expenditures, support infrastructure must be built, particularly transportation networks. -- Abe P. Belena, PHILEXPORT News and Features.
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