Reader's Response Draft 2

In the article "Explosive growth in Asian cities: Bright ideas to Seize the Urban Moment", Khanna (2015) claims that Asian Cities are becoming the global benchmark for citification through its innovative ideas. The writer asserts that compared to Europe and America, Southeast Asia has more than twice the amount of people immigrating into the cities from its rural areas. He argues that Southeast Asian metropolises are managing its rapid urban growth with flexible governance, resourceful citizens and local infrastructure innovation. Ideas such as a mobile application in Singapore called Beeline which adjust private bus route based on its citizen’s demands. While in the Philippines, it is providing more Wi-Fi hotspots to its citizens. I support the writer’s view that Southeast Asia is having a rapid urbanisation compared to the rest of the world and adapting with relevant ideas. However, I refute on Khanna’s stand on how Southeast Asian countries are tackling the main issue of rapid urbanisation growth in spite of his stated innovative ideas.

Khanna himself states that due to its dense population and size, difficulties emerge to provide essential necessities like housing, water and efficient transport to support a large and growing population. Developing countries will encounter various obstacles to comprehend their increasing urban populations in areas “such as housing, infrastructure, transportation, energy and employment, education and health care.”(United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs,2014)  Hence I strongly believe for a country to become an exemplary to urban development in this era, it must first be able to adhere to these three basic necessities.

To begin, the writer emphasizes that in Manila, housing is a grave issue for its growing population. He did not reiterate on how Manila is tackling this with a suitable innovative idea. The idea that the writer provides only tackles the issue on cyberspace connectivity which I strongly believe does not support any basic necessities. The Philippine government has set-up a $1.2 billion USD mandate to clear up its polluted waterways in Manila Bay. This will shift 104,000 families from the city’s many water towns surrounding Manila Bay's water ways. The government plans to relocate these estimated 500,000 citizens into new structure developments in Manila. Under the mandate, the Philippine government plans to create new accommodations which are able to shelter 900 families in them. (Kate Hodal, 2013) The Philippine Government has provided an idea and this in turn has tackled two of its countries basic necessities, housing & water, to support its ever increasing population and provide more water sources.

Adding on, another Southeast Asian country, Singapore with its forecasted white paper policy which would boost its already densely populated population up by another 30% has provided key planning ideas to adjust to its increased growth. It plans on increasing rail network from 180km to 360km twice its current length by 2030. This will allow more households to be able to access the train services just a walkable distance from their homes (Ministry of Trade and Industry Singapore, 2013). From this, we can clearly see how a Southeast Asian country such as Singapore supports its growing population with a thorough idea and tackles one of the key main necessities, Transport. Instead of a mobile app whereby Khanna provides as a form of innovative idea to tackle Singapore’s transport demands with no coherent outcome. This has showed that the Singapore government has indirectly promoted its train public transport to its citizens by making the train services easily accessible to commuters. Thus making public transport the better alternative to commute around Singapore.

To wrap it up, the innovative ideas provided by Khanna has its substance but unfortunately there are no direct outcomes from its implementation. It does not show how it makes Southeast Asian countries an exemplary to other countries of how they tackle their sudden urban immigration growth especially when it does not cover direct essential necessities which Khanna has stated to support a large city population or even a basic city population. Nonetheless, I Strongly agree that Khanna is precise in implying that Southeast Asian countries are experiencing a larger urban migration compared to the rest of the world and are able to adapt with proper planning and ideas.

(Edited 02/10/2015)

References

Singapore. Ministry of trade and industry Singapore. (2013). FAQs on Population White Paper:"A sustainable population for a dynamic Singapore”. Retrieved from https://www.mti.gov.sg/MTIInsights/Documents/FAQs%20for%20White%20Paper.pdf

Kate Hodal. (2013).” Manila is a Hotbed of Progressive Housing Solutions

A City’s Quest to Build a Better Informal Settlement”. Next City. Retrieved
from https://nextcity.org/features/view/slum-lab-manilas-quest-to-build-a-better-informal-settlement

United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs. (2014). “World’s population increasingly urban with more than half living in urban areas”. Retrieved from https://www.un.org/development/desa/en/news/population/world-urbanization-prospects.html