Urbanisation, a major economic opportunity for SL: World Bank

Sri Lanka and its regional peers will be able to meet the aspiration of standing amongst richer nations if the urbanisation card is played as a major opportunity to help fast track economic progress, the World Bank (WB) said in a report yesterday.

“If managed well, urbanisation can lead to sustainable growth by increasing productivity, allowing innovation and new ideas to emerge.

“Better cities can help reduce vulnerability to poverty, improve living conditions and create the environment for more and better paying jobs,” said WB Social, Urban, Rural and Resilience Global Practice Senior Director Ede IjjaszVasquez in releasing the ‘Leveraging Urbanisation in South Asia: Managing Spatial Transformation for Prosperity and Livability’ report.

Messy and hidden urbanisation

According to the report, difficulty in dealing with the pressures that urban populations put on infrastructure, basic services, land, housing and the environment have fostered “messy and hidden” urbanisation in South Asia, which in turn has contributed in constraining the region’s full realisation of the prosperity and livability benefits of urbanisation.

Sri Lanka received due emphasis in the report and noted to have performed will comparing to other countries in the region.

Noting it was the country with the fastest expansion of urban area between 1999 and 2010, it was highlighted that Sri Lanka’s urbanisation has been less “messy” that only a relatively small proportion of the urban population lives in slums and it has largely eradicated extreme urban poverty.

“The rapid expansion of urban area relative to urban population reflects the sprawl and ribbon development that are characteristic of Sri Lanka’s urban development,” the reported stated.

Achieving greater prosperity

While it was observed that since 2000 South Asia has made good strides in achieving greater prosperity with the increase in productivity linked with the growth of the region’s towns and cities, in the case of Sri Lanka, it was stated that this progress has also been linked with a decline in the share of the urban population living below the national poverty line from 7.9 percent in 2002 to 2.1 percent in 2013.

Furthermore, unlike many other countries in the region, the contribution made by manufacturing to Sri Lanka’s gross domestic product (GDP) continued to grow between 2000 and 2010, the report highlighted.