Results: Ongoing Progress in Urban Development in East Asia and Pacific

  Cambodia 
  China
  Indonesia
  Lao PDR
  Mongolia
  Vietnam        

Cambodia

 

In Cambodia, the Bank has been influential on urban poverty issues through support for two water supply projects.  The first is the Rehabilitation of Water Supply in Phnom Penh and Sihanoukville, which included the development of a Sector Policy (1998).

 

The second is the innovative Cambodia Provincial and Peri-Urban Water and Sanitation Project, which aims to assist the country in fulfilling the Millennium Development Goals in water supply and sanitation by 2015. The project design aims at building partnerships with the private sector and user groups in financing, operating, and maintaining constructed facilities, and ensures inclusion of low-income communities residing in the service areas.

 

Back to top

 

China

 

The urban staff of the Bank has developed a solid record of successful projects and an excellent working relationship with their Chinese counterparts.  A healthy dialogue has been maintained on major urban issues that have allowed the Bank to influence decision-making and policy formulation.

The urban development program in the country has been large and varied, promoting regional cooperation, municipal reforms, sustainable urban environmental management the importance of livability of East Asia cities, including the protection of cultural heritage.

 

The program has supported municipal management, utility corporatization, cost recovery, pollution control methodology, and the development of innovative municipal finance mechanisms and has financed critical investments in wastewater, solid waste and other environmental infrastructure.   Most projects, despite their environmental focus, have also been a platform for promoting municipal reform covering tariff reform, private sector participation, regulatory reform, housing policy, rural basic services and cultural heritage.

 

Key areas of engagement in China included the vibrant Pearl River Delta region, through a series of inter-municipal projects; the rapidly developing Yangtze River Delta region, through a series of projects such as the Shanghai Urban Environment Adaptable Program Loan and a series of projects in neighboring Zhejiang and Jiangsu Provinces; the restructuring northern area through a series of projects in Liaoning Province; and the newly developing central and western areas of the country through projects in Hunan, Guangxi, Yunnan, Sichuan, Chongqing, Gansu, and Guizhou.

 

Back to top

 

Indonesia

 

Despite problems of centralized control by national ministries of urban programs, the Bank has played an important role over the past thirty years in assisting the government in improving the functioning of urban areas and improving the lives of the urban poor.

 

The Bank’s past urban development work in Indonesia supported two distinct programs, the Kampung Improvement Program which was one of the first formal development programs in the world aimed at the systematic provision of basic services (water, sanitation, drainage, paving footpaths, electricity, schools, and clinics) in low-income areas and the Integrated Urban Infrastructure Development Program which was designed to strengthen the capacities of local governments and institutions to plan, program, build, operate and maintain city-level urban infrastructure services, including urban transport.

 

Most recently, the Bank has financed a series of urban poverty projects (UPP1, 2 and 3), which shift the approach of poverty work to a more community driven process than past efforts. Under UPP projects, communities control expenditures.   Significant community organization activities are a precursor to defining local priorities and are designed to increase transparency and accountability of local expenditures.

 

A new local government reform agenda is being defined through the preparation of the Urban Sector Development Reform Project that addresses broad issues of urban management, capacity building and urban finance.

 

Back to top

 

Lao PDR

 

There have been no urban projects in Laos, but the first and second land titling projects have had important urban components.  These projects are an important element of the government's policy to move toward a market-oriented economy is the development of efficient land markets. Under these projects, landowners have been able to use their new titles as collateral to get bank loans to expand their businesses or establish new ones.

 

Titling has also made it possible to finance some larger projects investments such as building apartment blocks. Government revenues have been boosted through land-related taxes and fees. Also noteworthy is the project's involvement of the Lao Women's Union in community outreach to inform women of the benefits and risks of land titling. As a result, the number of titled land parcels registered jointly and in the names of women exceeded the number registered in the name of males, as compared to provinces not covered by the project.

 

Back to top

 

Mongolia

 

The Bank has supported pioneering efforts in Mongolia towards addressing the issues of urban infrastructure and service provision as well as urban planning and management.

 

The main project supported by the Bank in recent years is the First Ulaanbaatar Services Improvement Project which aims to assist the government of Mongolia and the Municipality of Ulaanbaatar to improve urban infrastructure, water supply and services in the Ger and other areas of the city and to develop a more efficient institution for water supply.

 

Back to top

 

Philippines

 

Since the mid-1980s the Bank’s urban program in the Philippinesmainly involved support to small municipal projects around the country through the Municipal Development Fund (MDF).   For over ten years, the MDF, (now called MDFO) operated successfully as a channel to local governments for Official Development Assistance from the World Bank, Japan International Cooperation Agency, Asian Development Bank, and other donors.

 

The Bank maintains an ongoing engagement with Metro Manila, especially in the provision of water supply, wastewater, and sanitation.  The water and sanitation system in Metro Manila was privatized in 1997, and a series of Bank-financed projects have supported the concessionaires in rehabilitating and expanding services in the region. The Bank is also working with government agencies to support institutional and regulatory development that will further strengthen these sectors.

 

Other activities include the Urban Poor Community Renewal Scheme funded by the Japan Social Development Fund, which will pilot community based urban upgrading through NGO networks. Complimenting this, a Housing and Slum Improvement LIL has also been identified that would help deal with the large national backlog of slum and squatter areas.  It would enhance the Government’s Community Mortgage Program through the provision of infrastructure to supplement the land purchase arrangements under that program.

Back to top

 

Vietnam

 

The main focus of the World Bank’s urban sector lending support in Vietnamhas been through projects to improve water supply, drainage, sewerage, wastewater treatment and solid waste management. In contrast, the first multi-sectoral project, the Urban Upgrading Project, adopts a demand-responsive, participatory approach to the in-situ upgrading of slums in four cities and includes complementary trunk infrastructure investments, micro-finance for house improvements, provision of secure tenure to residents in upgraded areas, and capacity building for local governments.

Back to top