A FINE GATHERING
SOUTH Africa has much to learn about urbanisation and the development of cities from the collective experience of its Brics partners – Brazil, Russia, India and China.
That was the consensus view of representatives of the five-nation cooperative body at the friendship cities, local government cooperation and urbanisation forum which is under way in East London.
From taking lessons from the industrialisation programmes underpinning China’s high urbanisation rate and mimicking Brazil’s efforts to provide adequate housing and sanitation services, to using India’s experience of stakeholder management, South Africa can benefit much from information sharing through its Brics links.
The Chinese People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries vicepresident Lin Yi said Chinese urbanisation had now reached 68%.
The country’s investment in industry had been crucial to ensuring that residents of cities could improve their living standards.
In addition, the development of industrial activity-generated income for local government could ensure the wellbeing of local residents and also make possible the relocation of people from undeveloped parts of the country.
“Industrialisation is, without doubt, the way to urbanisation.
“Especially by manufacturing industries you can employ more people.
The Chinese programme of “friendship cities”, establishing partnerships with cities in other countries around the world, had also hugely benefited industrial investments and trade in urban areas.
It was no coincidence, said Chinese representatives at the forum, that the value of the country’s trade with its topfive country partnerships tracked the number of city-to-city partnerships Chinese cities had established in each partner country.
China has established 32 city partnerships with South Africa already and there were unlimited opportunities for further international partnerships within Brics.
The minister of the Indian region of Panchayati Raj, Shri Narendra Singh Tomar, said transparent processes, good participation and cooperation from all stakeholders were critical to good local governance and eliminating corruption.
This would also prevent the kind of destruction of infrastructure by disenchanted communities seen in some countries. Infrastructure that was created must also be put to adequate use and optimised.
Brazil’s national housing secretariat director for urbanisation Alessandra d’Avila Vieira said the provision of new social housing was a critical national programme, but the upgrading and integration of slums into urban centres was also very important for the country.
South African deputy minister of cooperative governance and traditional affairs Andries Nel said that while South Africa’s spatial planning as a result of its apartheid legacy was quite unique, the country could draw strength from the experiences of its Brics partners in addressing urban issues.
“The best way to solve these problems is to solve them all together, because these problems belong to all five countries,” said Russian representative Roman Ambarov.
“We could and should share our expertise,” he added.