The results for Mercer’s ranking of the cities with the best ‘Quality of Living’ has left many surprised. Singapore being ranked as the city with the best infrastructure along with one of the best ‘quality of living’ in the world was not predicted before long.
Mercer, a top consultancy firm surveyed 231 cities for their 2017 ‘Quality of Living’ rankings. It mostly evaluated the countries based on criteria such as political stability, health care, education, crime rate, transport, and so on. However, this year ‘City Infrastructure’ was ranked separately.
“MERCER, A TOP CONSULTANCY FIRM SURVEYED 231 CITIES FOR THEIR 2017 ‘QUALITY OF LIVING’ RANKINGS. IT MOSTLY EVALUATED THE COUNTRIES BASED ON CRITERIA SUCH AS POLITICAL STABILITY, HEALTH CARE, EDUCATION, CRIME RATE, TRANSPORT, AND SO ON. HOWEVER, THIS YEAR ‘CITY INFRASTRUCTURE’ WAS RANKED SEPARATELY.”
The City Infrastructure helps many multinational companies (MNC) determine where to open their offices next and assists them to relocate their expats. Other factors that are considered in this survey include traffic congestion, international flights available from local airports, access to transportation, reliable water, energy supply, and so on. All these help determine the hardships faced by the assignee given their home and host locations.
Singapore passed the survey with flying colors. It ranked 25th in the Quality of Living and first in City Infrastructure. The city prides itself in meeting all the criteria set by Mercer for winning the first place in the City Infrastructure list. Frankfurt and Munich were tied for second place whereas, Baghdad (230) and Port-au-Prince (231) are at the bottom of the list.
Moreover, a well-developed infrastructure is a key competitive advantage for cities who are trying to attract MNCs and foreign direct investment. This has led the city and urban planners to take a close look at their cities ranking.
According to an article by World Economic Forum (WEF), South-Asian countries need trillions of dollars’ worth investment in infrastructure. Both public and private funding will not suffice, ultimately affecting public welfare as well as economic prosperity. This isn’t any different in the case of Dhaka, Bangladesh. ‘In the WEF’s Global Competitiveness Report of 2009-2010, Bangladesh ranked at 126th, far behind its South-Asian neighbors – India (49th), Sri Lanka (79th) and Pakistan (101st).’
Despite, being hailed as the top 12 developing countries in the world, the Bangladesh’s infrastructure has not seen any benefits of the high growth levels yet. Its infrastructure is crumbling under the heavy demands of the ever growing economy. “Access to basic economic infrastructures such as roads, communication, electricity, ICT, energy, power, water, and sanitation remains a strategic challenge on the way to industrialization and poverty alleviation.” Thus, it came as a surprise when the government’s fund allocation for infrastructure was announced as a part of the overall Annual Development Fund for 2017.
In the past, constructions were based on issues such as sanitation or flooding. This meant that the previous governments focused only on one type of infrastructural project at a time which neglected the overall impact of the other infrastructural projects, on government as well as environmental policies. Thus, in order to avoid such bias, the policy makers need to be more vigilant. As it happens, in the Chicago Forum on Global Cities it was agreed that solutions for such problems would be better dealt at the municipal and the regional-level policymakers than national government.
However, rather than being reactive, future infrastructural designers will need to be proactive to ensure sustainability. It is also predicted that by 2050, some 600 million people will live in the world’s 25 largest cities, none of which are in the European Union.
On the other hand, another 40% of the global population lives in coastal areas, and much of the large-scale devastation in these areas is due to hurricanes and typhoons. Issues of inadequate transport sector, unsustainable real estate planning and power shortages are also matters that need to be addressed immediately.
The Vision 2021, plans to deliver on these three points over the next four years. Here’s a breakdown of the above mentioned three sectors according to the manifesto provided by the planning commission.
IN FACT, IT FELL FROM 35.3% OF THE ANNUAL DEVELOPMENT FUND IN 2012 TO 32.1% IN THE FISCAL YEAR 2014. THE CONTRIBUTION OF THE INFRASTRUCTURAL SECTOR TO THE GDP IN PERCENTAGES IS SHOWN BELOW.
TRANSPORT:
Roads: With roads drawing overwhelming attention, efforts are being given to upgrade old roads and constructing new ones. National Highways are thus being prioritized. ‘The Dhaka-Chittagong Highway (NH1) is to become a six-lane road while the other highways should gradually become four-lane by 2021.’1 Moreover, to ensure adequate number of east-west connections, it is hoped that the Padma Bridge will serve the southwest part of Bangladesh and improve the connection between Mongla Port and Dhaka. Efforts will be made to construct the second Padma Bridge during the Perspective Plan Period as well.
Railway: This is thrust sector for the transport industry. Strategies in this sector include increasing market share in freight and container transport between Dhaka-Chittagong Port and in passenger transport as well.
Port and Shipping: The Maritime transport sector is crucial for the development of Bangladesh. Thus some of the strategies listed will help to improve the navigational channel through capital dredging and regular maintenance dredging. Improvement of operations through the acquisition of modern container handling equipment and procurement of harbor crafts and vessels along with the establishment of inland container depot for all cargo distribution points are also in line.
ENERGY:
After being neglected in the past, the country is experiencing an energy crisis. Present challenges faced by this industry include coping up with the demand and supply for energy, economizing consumption of natural gas and promoting renewable energy.
The aim is to provide electricity for all by 2021. Hence, the objective is to Increase the reserve base and production of gas through accelerated exploration, appraisal and development of gas fields. Also, a lot of focus is being put on the prospects of hydro-electricity (in co-operation with Nepal, Bhutan and India) and to set up coal-powered fire stations in Sundarban.
URBANIZATION:
All the major cities in Bangladesh are experiencing rapid rural-urban migration. This puts huge pressure on the cities to provide basic necessities like food, shelter, employment to the large number of people including the migrated ones. With the limited resources at their disposal this becomes quite a challenge.
With such rapid migration rates, policies need to be designed accordingly. These are some of the action plans for dealing with this problem:
Patterns and Process of Urbanization: ‘The primary focus will be to achieve a more balanced distribution of urban centers in terms of population size, employment opportunities, housing and essential infrastructure and services.’ 2
Urban Environmental Management: Policies in this area seek to promote cleaner environment, control pollution and protect public health from environmental hazards. Emphasis will be given on two major sector: preventive actions and inter-disciplinary approach. Both these points focus on preventing further environmental degradation.
Urban Housing: ‘Access to affordable urban housing is an increasing problem in the country as population pressure increases and prices of land and construction costs rise. The policy in this respect is to bring about improvement in the housing situation in terms of quality and quantity of housing units, housing tenure and housing accessibility’
Urban Land Management and Planning: The aim is to promote sustainable land-use planning and innovative land management practices, with the objective of providing for the land requirements for urban development while keeping environmental factors in mind.
GROWTH OF URBAN POPULATION IN BANGLADESH IS GIVEN BELOW:
1. http://www.plancomm.gov.bd/ wp-content/uploads/2013/09/ Perspective-Plan-of-Bangladesh.pdf
2. http://www.plancomm.gov.bd/ wp-content/uploads/2013/09/ Perspective-Plan-of-Bangladesh.pdf
