THE New Year is a start of a new decade and 2020 has nice ring to it. The 20/20 stands for normal visual acuity or the clarity or sharpness of vision measured at a distance of 20 feet. With 2020 symbolizing the start of a new decade, an ideal template would be not even a 20-year but a 10-year or 2020 to 2030 masterplan.
This may sound short-term but it would allow rapid changes in technology to be revisited after ten years. Ten is clean number that stands for what we perceive as perfect hence let me use the number in sharing my vision, although my wish list for Bacolod exceeds ten items. Here are the first five items:
First, a fully integrated waste facility complex that completely supports the “zero-waste” aspiration of our laws. It shall have waste-to-energy or waste conversion technologies that reduce waste products and convert them instead to useful items.
I wish to see a “mall-like” buyback center that transforms scavengers to waste sorters and allow them decent income and creates a conducive ecosystem for the city”s landfill, recyclers, and corporate waste program managers, especially those producing large volume of waste or hazardous waste, to work together to reduce waste and lower waste collection budget of the city and allow us to fully comply with laws on solid waste management.
This can only happen when we understand that we, myself included, are all committing a crime against our environment and future generations if we continue to tolerate the concept of a “dumpsite” which is already unlawful since 2005.
Second, a comprehensive business environment solution that consolidates all transactions with the city government as well as national government agencies operating in the city compliant to the prescribed periods under the Ease of Doing Business (EODB) Law, especially the issuance of business permits and other licenses. The system must migrate almost all transactions to digital and approximate “zero-contact” policy to drastically reduce graft and corrupt practices.
I dream to see the salient features of the Republic No. 11032 under a highly disseminated and understood revised Citizen”s Charter that operates as a source of right for citizens to hold the local government accountable for non-compliance as the law envisions. This development although now mandatory can only happen with an enlightened citizenry that understands that “red tape” is not at all excusable.
Third, an integrated smart city system that encourages and puts in place full and active citizens’ engagement in all concerns such as traffic, street lighting, job and investments, healthcare and environment. This happens when government is “open” to hear crowd-sourced solutions just like what I learned in Taiwan and other countries practicing open government.
Barangays need to be at the forefront in assisting the city to achieve its targets with the use of both barangay and city resources. I envision a city that actively assists barangays to raise revenues so it can sufficiently attend to its own concerns, such as in peace and order, transportation, health care and other social services.
Fourth, the opening of new tourism niche markets for the city beyond just the promotion of the annual Masskara Festival but also leveraging on the latter. The festival mentality is ideal only when there are key performance indicators such as specific increase in the number of foreign and local visitors, sustained increase in sales of local products (aside from China-made), higher income for local establishment owners and small and medium enterprises and more awareness of business potential of the city.
This initiative would not easily happen without a holistic approach on the part of all local government units in Negros Occidental including Bacolod and the provincial government. The key word today is collaboration rather than competition.
Fifth, business data and analytics that will create a more intelligent business ecosystem to elicit the full trust and confidence of potential investors. There are so many areas we can open up both for public and private investments. I am looking at state-of-the-art logistics, incubation, design and packaging centers for small and medium enterprises. The Tatak Pinoy vision of Senator Sonny Angara currently puts an emphasis on helping support Filipino products and promoting the Filipino brand. I will write more about this policy support in future columns.
I will continue with five more items under my Vision 2020 which I dream of seeing happening in the next several years. Merry Christmas to all!