Sri Lankan government recognizes cities as engines of growth and migration magnets

"The 'Sri Lankan government recognizes that cities are engines of growth and magnets for population migration. The majority of Sri Lnaka's population will live in urban areas by 2020. Ensuring sustainable and rational urbanization, therefore, is critical Engineering Services, Housing and Common Amenities Ministry Secretary P. H. L. W. Wimalasiri Perera said.

The Government's urban vision is to develop as a system of competitive, environmentally sustainable, and well-linked cities and to provide every family with affordable and adequate urban shelter by 2020.

Under the guidance of President Mahinda Rajapaksa, the President of Sri Lanka we were able to eradicate the terrorism prevailed in the country, after bringing peace to the country. The government of Sri Lanka is spearheading to embark on a massive development throughout the country."

The Secretary was speaking at the inauguration of the 24th Session of Governing Council of the United Notions Centre for Human Settlement (Un-Habitat) at Nairobi Kenya recently.

This week-long conference was officially inaugurated by Kenya's newly elected President Uhuru Kenyatta.

The Governing Council meets every two years to examine UN-Habitat's work and relationships with its partners. It is a high-level forum of governments at the ministerial level during which policy guidelines and the organization's budget are established for the next two years. President Kenyatta said, "Today, half of the world's population lives in urban areas; and a third of them are in slums and informal settlements. By the year 2050, over 70 per cent of the world's population will be-living in cities. The convening of this gathering, therefore, provides member states with an opportunity to reflect on urbanization challenges and deliberate on the way forward,".

In a speech the official UN Habitat on behalf of the UN Secretary General of the United Nations Ban Ki Moon said, "The majority of the world's urban growth is taking place in developing countries, where many urban centers already have inadequate infrastructure and where many authorities are looking for ways to respond adequately to the demands of their rapidly expanding urban populations, especially the young and the poor," the Secretary General noted.

UN-Habitat Executive Director Dr. Joan Clos said, "We have met the quantitative target of improving the lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers out of a total of 760 million in 2000. This is an achievement. But this figure hides a reality. This welcome cut has been dramatically surpassed by the increased number of new arrivals to the slums. The total number of people living in slums has increased from 760 million in 2000 to 863 million 2012".

Wimalasiri Perera secretary to the Ministry of Engineering Servicers, Housing and Common Amenities led the Sri Lankan delegation to session on behalf of Minister Wimal Weerawansa.

This session has been held under the theme of Sustainable Urban Development the role of cities in creating improved economic opportunities for all with special reference to Youth and Gender.

Wimalasiri Perera further said, "Sri Lanka National Physical Planning Policy and Plan 2011-2030 promotes to enhance connectivity by building an expressway network that would closely link most cities. It will also enable Sri Lnaka to tap the resource-based comparative advantages of its cities in tourism, agro processing and fisheries among the most dynamic export sectors with a wide territorial distribution that particularly benefits urban centres outside the Colombo Metro Region. Enhanced connectivity will give rise to new urban centers. The challenges is to ensure that their growth is economically, socially, and environmentally sustainable.

"The Construction Engineering Service Housing and Common Amentities Ministry initiated the National Housing Settlement Development Drive of building one million houses in line with Mahinda Chinthana Policy frame work and under the guidance of Minister Wimal Weerawansa.

"World is urbanizing. Already more than half of the global populations live in towns and cities and projections now show that cities will be home to two third of humanity in little over a generation from now. Cities are engine of growth and play an important role in the national development. They are the centres of resources, skills and viable social fabric. Thereby many more flock to the cities for no other reasons than promises of better future and prosperity.

"Unfortunately the prosperity of the cities has not been given to everyone and benefit of the urban development has not been evenly distributed in the cities and towns. Poverty, proliferation of slums and squatter settlements, inadequate infrastructure, poor access to social services and environmental degradation are some of the basic challenges that cities are facing today.

"The main objective of Janasevana Housing and Settlements programme is to improve the condition of people living in dilapidated housing by upgrading available housing units or by providing better housing facilities and access to minimum services with the development of livelihood of the communities.

This programme ensures a sustainable settlement development in rural, urban and plantation sectors and also with special emphasis on housing the war affected communities in Northern and Eastern Provinces of Sri Lanka.

In this context, youth and women are important actors in terms of decision-making. Planning and implementing urban actions which could create space for generation of new employment, space for social cohesiveness, making cities socially, economically politically and environmentally sustainable and competitive," he said.