FE Report
Experts at an international event Saturday stressed the need for providing the city corporations and municipalities with more resources and authorities to ensure planned and sustainable urbanisation.
Local urban bodies should also find new avenues of income and revenue generation to achieve self-sufficiency, they told a two-day 'Cities Forum' that began at a city hotel.
The World Bank organised the conference with support from Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation and in partnership with the relevant local bodies.
"Give more authorities to the city mayors, strengthen them, equip them, give them more resources and held them accountable," said Balakrishna Parameswaran, who is the Lead Urban Specialist at the World Bank.
"In South Asia, we have anti-urban policies which have real socioeconomic costs," he said. "Urbanisation's missed opportunity impacts poverty level."
Such views came at a time when unplanned urbanisation and poor infrastructure became a major concern for Bangladeshi cities.
The share of local spending compared to total public expenditure in Bangladesh is about 3.0 per cent, one of the lowest in the world.
In this context, the WB specialist emphasised visionary leadership, informed and thoughtful planning along with practical investment as well as participation and involvement of citizens in planned and sustainable development of urban areas.
In his presentation, he also lamented the sorry state of Dhaka, the country's biggest metropolis, which was created due to inadequate investment in its infrastructure and governance.
"Dhaka is not a livable city by many measures. Because, we have not invested in Dhaka and it has real economic and social cost," he said.
"Dhaka's government structure is also not conducive to a livable metro area," he said, adding, "We need to fix the institutions of Dhaka. This city needs a paradigm shift."
Apart from Dhaka, Parameswaran also called for investing more in secondary cities, which, he observed, could decrease the burden on the capital city while triggering economic growth in remote parts of the country.
"While you need to deliver public goods and services, you also need to start collecting taxes like property tax," he said, addressing nearly 300 mayors from across the country.
"You need to start developing plans and visions for your city while starting to invest in the infrastructure of your city," he said.
Speaker of the Parliament Dr. Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury, who attended the inaugural session of the event as chief guest, said that the country could allocate more resources for planned urbanization as the economy was growing.
"The economy of our country is doing very well. Our GDP is growing at a consistent rate of 7 per cent. Bangladesh has already attained the status of lower middle income country," she said.
"Therefore, I think, Bangladesh's economy has the capacity to allocate adequate resources for urban development."
She also called for capacity enhancement and better knowledge sharing among the architects and urban planners of the country.
The conference also introduced a Center of Excellence for Urban Development, which will act as a platform for exchanging knowledge and building capacity of the municipalities.
"To become an upper middle income country by its 50th birthday, Bangladesh must manage its urbanisation sustainably," WB country director in Bangladesh Qimiao Fan told the conference.
Later, at a plenary session on 'City Leadership and Good Governance', the mayors called for increased resource allocation for the municipalities across the country.
Noting that the local urban bodies often suffer from the scarcity of land and income, Mayor of Narayanganj City Corporation Salina Hayat Ivy called for exploring new avenues of revenue and income generation.
"For example, municipalities can acquire the huge amount of khas lands or the lands of the railway that have remained unutilised and use the properties for productive purposes like building markets."
"Such schemes, in turn, can act as sources of additional income for the urban bodies," she added.
Mayor of Dhaka South City Corporation Mohammad Sayeed Khokon, Mayor of Salt Lake City of the US and the President of National League of Cities, USA Ralph Becker and former Mayor of Calibayog City of Philippines Mel Senen S. Sarmiento also spoke on the occasion.
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