HOW PH CAN BENEFIT FROM URBANIZATION
How can a country like the Philippines benefit from rapid urbanization? By making cities more competitive, sustainable, and inclusive. This was according to a joint study by the government and the World Bank, which stressed on the important role of cities as drivers of growth and providers of knowledge and innovation.
The study, entitled “Philippines Urbanization Review: Fostering Competitive, Sustainable and Inclusive Cities”, stated that about 45 percent of Filipinos live in urban areas today.
That number is expected to more than double by 2050 to 102 million, generating higher demand for housing, basic services, transportation, and jobs.
City competitiveness
Currently, Philippine cities generate more than 70 percent of the country’s gross domestic product, more than half of it from Metro Manila alone.
“City competitiveness is an impor- tant part of successful urbanization, because it creates jobs, raises productivity and increases people’s wages,” said World Bank country director Mara K. Warwick. “But that is not enough. Cities need to be inclusive and sustain- able. They should have good land use management and strong institutions.”
Three major challenges, however, will have to be addressed if the country is to benefit from rapid urbanization.
These were identified as density, pertaining to the growing population which is not matched by key infrastructure investments; distance, referring to connectivity issues that increase transportation cost and impede labor mobility; and division, which is about limited access to basic services and economic opportunities especially among informal settlers.
Addressing these challenges, the study pointed out, would meanwhile require key reforms and focus in four priority areas namely city competitiveness; inclusive urbanization; urban governance and institutions; and land administration and management.
Fundamental infrastructure
The study defined land administration as the processes of determining, recording and disseminating information about the tenure, value and use, while land management refers to the process by which the resources of land are put to good effect.
According to the World Bank, land administration and management (LAM) systems are a fundamental infrastructure for proper functioning of land markets, which meanwhile “enable land to flow to those who are willing and able to use land well, thereby, facilitate investments and growth, improve land alloca-