Urban planning vital to ease congestion in Yangon

 

A 20-year urban development plan is being drafted for Myanmar’s biggest city, said Aye Aye Myint, director at the Construction Ministry’s Department of Human Settlement and Housing Development. With assistance from the United Nations Development Programme, the task is being carried out by the National Comprehensive Development Plan (NCDP).

Proper planning is necessary to ensure decentralisation and equal development in all cities, for national economic development, he said. 

“About 33 per cent of Myanmar’s population is living in urban areas, but this will rise to 36 per cent in 2030,” said Aye Aye Myint. “The trend is unavoidable. Cities become the engines of economic growth. Proper urban planning and development is essential and vital to the country’s timely growth.”

The Ministry of Construction, the main body responsible for nationwide urban and housing sector development, plans to establish the National Spatial Planning System. The National Spatial Development Planning Law will be enacted to support it. The National Spatial Development Plan (NSDP) is being drafted to support the National Comprehensive Development Plan. Such tasks – involving the allocation of reserve land for future urban development – are being assisted by experts from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).

Last June, Yangon City Development Committee with the assistance of JICA drafted the Strategic Urban Development Plan for Yangon City 2014. It entailed infrastructure development, new land-use planning concepts, and an urban development management programme. It was developed with assistance from various ministries and endorsed by the Yangon Region Government. 

The majority of Myanmar’s 60 million people live in the central and lower areas of the country. Yangon has the largest population, with Mandalay in the north coming second with 1.5 million people. The capital, Nay Pyi Taw, has a population of about 500,000. Nationwide, about 30 cities have populations of more than 100,000. Among them, Yangon is the most attractive in terms of job opportunities. 

Sett Aung, the chairperson of the Thilawa SEZ Management Committee, said earlier in an urban development conference that an enormous level of cross-border migration as well as internal migration is occurring.

“We need better urban development in order to accommodate so much rural migration to urban areas,” he said.

Economist Myint Soe said that the government must take this trend very seriously.

“Unemployment rates in rural areas are very high. For example, it is not easy to get a job for a fresh graduate if he lives in a small town,” said Myint Soe. “And it usually requires a lot of money to start a business, no matter how small it is. That is why many young people in rural areas move to Yangon, where they can find a job easier than anywhere else in the country.”

The economist said the government must narrow the development gap between Yangon and rural areas. To him, the Thein Sein administration is responsible for creating more employment opportunities in other towns to ease congestion in Yangon.

According to Aye Aye Myint, since the 1990s, Myanmar has established 24 special development zones nationwide. In each zone, there is a university and a hospital, to create new new employment opportunities. Industrial zones, especially in major cities, have been introduced to attract new local and foreign investment. 

Yangon’s South Western regional master plan and the Yangon-Hanthawady-Bago Corridor development master plan will be developed in 2015 in collaboration with the Ministry of Construction, Ministry of National Planning and Economic Development, and Korea International Cooperation Agency. 

The Department of Human Settlement and Housing Development also proposed the Mandalay City Development Concept in 2012, approved later by the Mandalay Region Government. A Green City concept was adopted by Mandalay City Development Committee with help from Asian Development Bank.