Turning Sri Lanka's Urban Vision into Policy and Action - UN HABITAT

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Turning Sri Lanka’s Urban Vision into Policy and ActionAcknowledgmentsThis report, a joint product of the World Bank’s South Asia Urban & Water Unit and UN-HABITAT, wasprepared by a team comprising Elisa Muzzini (Economist/Task Team Leader), Fernanda Ruiz Nunez(Transport Economist/Co-Task Team Leader), Richard Clifford (Lead Urban Economist/Consultant),Laxman Perera (Program Manager, UN-HABITAT), and Gabriela Aparicio (Junior ProfessionalAssociate), with inputs from Gianni Brizzi, Jerry Chen, Conrad De Tissera, Lalithasiri Gunaruwan,Asoka Gunawardena, Nayana Mawilmada, Indika Samarakoon, and Tanya Savrimootoo. The studywas carried out under the overall guidance of Diarietou Gaye (Country Director for Sri Lanka andMaldives) and Ming Zhang (Sector Manager, South Asia Urban & Water Unit). The peer reviewers forthe study were Dean Cira, Sonia Hammam and Barjor Mehta. Andrea Merrick, Dan Biller, Bill Kingdom,Seenithamby Manoharan, Willie Mendis, Bala Menon, Rosanna Nitti, Amali Rajapaksa, Susan Razzaz,and Anna Wellenstein provided valuable feedback and comments. The team thanks the participantsof the two consultative workshops held in Colombo on October 4, 2011, and February 16, 2012, aswell as the government officials and stakeholders met during the field visits in Galle, Jaffna, Kandy,and Trincomalee, for their inputs and valuable comments. Overall support to the team was providedby Shane Ferdinandus, Michelle Chen, and Ranali Perera. A team at Communications DevelopmentIncorporated, led by Bruce Ross-Larson, with Rob Elson and Jack Harlow, edited and proofread thereport.vi
Executive summaryExecutive summarySri Lanka’s Country Vision is to become a global hub between the East and the West and anupper middle-income country by 2016. Sri Lanka’s Urban Vision, as defined in the government’sdevelopment policy framework – the Mahinda Chintana – is to develop a system of competitive,environmentally sustainable, well-linked cities clustered in five metro regions and nine metro citiesand to provide every family with affordable and adequate urban shelter by 2020.Envisioning the futureSustained productivity growth in the Colombo Metropolitan Region (CMR) is crucial for Sri Lankabecoming an upper middle-income economy by 2016. The high productivity of the CMR, or WesternProvince (with 28 percent of the country’s people but producing 45 percent of GDP), is one of SriLanka’s most valuable growth engines. But the CMR needs to become more competitive with otherAsian cities. Strengthening its most dynamic service sectors (information technology and financialservices) and shifting from low to high value-added manufacturing should take priority. Improving theCMR’s infrastructure, its citizens’ quality of life, and its human resources, through a close partnershipwith the domestic and international private sectors, will be essential.Sri Lanka’s urban structure can evolve into a system of competitive, well-linked cities, as envisaged inthe country’s National Physical Planning Policy and Plan 2011–2030. 1 The plan will be facilitated bySri Lanka’s small size, easy topography, and government’s plan to enhance connectivity by buildingan expressway network that would closely link most cities. It will also enable Sri Lanka to tap theresource-based comparative advantages of its cities in tourism, agroprocessing, and fisheries – amongthe most dynamic export sectors with a wide territorial distribution that particularly benefits urbancenters outside the Western Province.Enhanced connectivity will give rise to new urban centers. The challenge is to ensure that theirgrowth is economically, socially, and environmentally sustainable. The ambitious population targetsof the new metro cities need to be considered in light of Sri Lanka’s economic geography. It is alsoimportant to carefully assess the impact of rapidly growing populations in emerging urban centerson the sustainability of the urban transition and the growth prospects for ecotourism development,as large migratory flows would put increasing pressure on environmental assets.The priority for urban centers outside the Western Province is to develop appropriate long-termstrategies to support their sustainable development based on a common vision with broad stakeholderbuy-in. While most of the emerging urban centers are at a nascent stage, several urban settlementsoutside the CMR are growing fast, so it is critical to ensure their economic and environmentallysustainable growth. Kandy – Sri Lanka’s second-largest city outside the CMR – plays an important1
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Chapter Sixof tenure and improve li
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