By Mia A. Aznar
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
IF CEBU wants to catch up with the rest of the world, its cities and municipalities have to come up with a unified plan that they can follow for the next 30 years, one of Cebu’s top business leaders said.
Roberto Aboitiz, president of the Ramon Aboitiz Foundation Inc., told members of the local business community during the regular meeting of the Rotary Club of Cebu West that creating a Cebu city-region would show the world that it is serious and determined to compete on a global scale.
Aboitiz called the Mega Cebu vision a “strategic opportunity” to think of Metro Cebu as a city-region, and go beyond the boundaries of Cebu City, Mandaue City and Lapu-Lapu City. The plan stretches from Carcar to Danao.
“Success is no accident. It is a planned journey,” he said.
With the Metro Cebu Development Coordinating Board (MCDCB), Aboitiz said the group serves as an informal group with a common, integrated goal for Cebu.
The planning includes areas in integrated development, transportation and traffic management, pollution control and solid waste disposal and management, flood control, public safety and security, road improvement and infrastructure development, and urban renewal and shelter. Other areas of cooperation include coastal resources and watershed management, climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction and health and sanitation and environmental management.
Aboitiz said 13 mayors of Metro Cebu’s cities and municipalities and members of civil society and business groups should come together. He assured that the cities and municipalities will maintain their own geo-political integrity but that they will collaborate with each other, acknowledge a shared vision and value the process of strategic thinking and integrated development planning.
The group also aims to ensure sustainability by adopting the principle and framework of economic prosperity, livability, social equity and inclusion and ecological integrity.
The Mega Cebu roadmap, he said, should address growth challenges, urbanization, population, aging and inadequate infrastructure and declining competitiveness. It should also address opportunities in economic development, quality of life and sustainability.
Aboitiz said the concept of collaboration is nothing knew, pointing out that successful cities all over the world are practicing regional collaboration.
He showed a video of how it is done in Vancouver, Canada, which also experienced initial boundary issues from different municipalities.
Other successful city-regions are Curitiba, Brazil, which brought together 25 municipalities to make urban occupation more dense, and Shanghai, China, which has new urban centers set up in 10 suburban districts to diffuse the impact of urban concentration.
“Junction engineering will not bring us the competitive edge. This is our future. If we don’t create a vision for Cebu, we will be bypassed,” Aboitiz said.
He noted that while Cebu has many assets, it does not have the ability to handle growth.
He lamented that existing projects are “creating floods and traffic.”
“I’ve heard them say that long-term plans take too long. But my question is, when do we start?”
He lamented that nobody bothered to create a master plan for Cebu.
“Twenty kilometers of travel shouldn’t take an hour.”
Aboitiz admitted that the plan sounded challenging and that many might even be skeptical it would work, knowing policies change whenever a new administration takes over. But he believes it is a good way to start.
“I am optimistic that we can change the way we think. Change the way we plan.”
Aside from government, civil society and the business sector working on the road map, Aboitiz said IBM will also serve as partners in the program.
Six top level executives of the company based in Germany, the United States, Italy and Sweden will be sharing their expertise.
He appealed to those present to help out and share their vision for Cebu.
“The future does not belong to small, unprepared, incoherent and divided cities.”
Published in the Sun.Star Cebu newspaper on October 06, 2011
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