Roperos: Shame for the city

Friday, December 9, 2011

WHAT have we done with our city? That’s the question that emerged in my mind when I read the story in the business section of this daily the other day that in a recent assessment survey of 500 cities in the world on urban competitiveness, Cebu City was ranked 475th, meaning, it has only beaten 25 cities in the globe.

Such a poor showing is most puzzling since other less-known cities in Asia occupied better ranks.

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In the 888 News Forum graced at the Marco Polo Plaza attended by members of the Cebu Business Club and private sector representatives of the Metro Cebu Development Coordinating Board (MCDCB), it was pointed out “that based data they gathered, even cities of some underdeveloped countries are more competitive than Cebu City” such as Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam, ranked 302nd and 337th respectively; Pnom Penh in Cambodia at 415th slot, and Rangoon in Myanmar at 446th.

The problem with the perceived deterioration of Cebu City’s competitive capability is the lack of urban and development planning of the concerned local government unit itself. And the reason behind this inability to update the means to improve the city’s livability, I believe, is more political than technical. There is no doubt that internal wrangling among the key people who manage the government of this urban center is largely the problem.

The matter of improving Cebu City’s quality of life has become a problem that truly needs attention from everyone. This is the thinking of the president of the MCDCB, the business group composed of 21 businessmen and civil society leaders in Metro Cebu, and which formed the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) in order to gain for Cebuanos “livability, governance, prosperity.”

A place with a secure economic well-being is a “happy” area. But at the moment, Cebu Ciy deserves the Asian rank it now occupies, simply because its inhabitants have been neglectful all along of what it takes to attain a good and secure economic well-being.

This is a rather precarious circumstance in the sense that if at any moment the global economic condition would deteriorate, Cebu’s future might become worse than it is now.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB), also the other day, had reportedly “trimmed down 2012 growth forecast for emerging East Asian economies including China, as the eurozone turmoil threatens to drag the global economy back into crisis. The Manila-based bank cut its gross produce growth by 7.2 percent for the 10-country Asean plus China, Hong Kong, South Korea and Taiwan. They “supply” Metro Cebu’s tourism clientele.

It would truly be a further shame on our part if we would be downgraded in rank the next time around when assessment results of urban competitiveness is made.