Published in Daily News, July 5, 1999

A regional conference of mayors of 28 Asian cities was held in Colombo from June 28^th to 30^th with some success stories of how the private sector and civil society have helped local administrations to provide basic amenities to residents.

At least two studies from the municipalities of Colombo and Penang in Malaysia, illustrated the effective use of the private sector and community groups in the provision of a range of services including water supply, sewerage, garbage and solid waste disposal.

Karu Jayasuriya, former Mayor of Colombo, spoke of how a number of partnerships were built between the Colombo Municipality and the business community, professional organizations, nongovernmental groups (NGOs) and civil society.

"NGOs and private sector joined us in the maintenance of dispensaries, of roundabouts, traffic lighting systems, provision of common amenities to the poor, street name boards and so on," said Jayasurita, who relinquished duties as mayor last month and moved to an elected post in a higher authority�the Western Provincial Council.

He said that with public services not being effective and efficient, some of the basic services in Colombo were offered to the private sector on contract.

"Although there was initial criticism and objections, it proved a successful venture. Today, many services such as janitorial, security, garbage collection is carried out on contracts by the private sector," he told the meeting.

More than 75 mayors, councillors and local administrators representing a total of 100 million residents in Asia took part in three-day Asian Mayor�s Forum, which discussed ways of improving services in cities in Asia.

The Forum, the second in a series of meetings between Asian mayors, was sponsored by the Asian Development Bank Institute (ADB Institute) of Tokyo, the Asian Development Bank (ADB), United States-Asia Environmental Partnership Programme (US-AEP) and other international funding agencies. The first meeting of the forum hosted by the ADB Institute, was held in Cebu, Philippines last December. The mayors represented 28 cities in Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Nepal, Pakistan, Laos, Philippines, Sri Lanka and Vietnam.

A press note released at the meeting said that the ADB Institute believes that cities would be one of the key government agencies that will bear the brunt of improving living standards and economic wellbeing for urban residents in the next millenium.

"The second Mayor�s Forum is an important initiative in building practical skills among leaders in the Asian region to cope with their large and growing challenges in improving municipal services to the general population at large," it said.

Masaru Yoshitomi, dean of the ADB Institute, said the Colombo meeting was a unique opportunity for mayors to informally share experiences on how to tackle urban problems and to exchange possible solutions.

Municipalities across Asia are struggling to cope with a multitude of problems like burgeoning populations, unplanned economic growth, urban migration, inefficient administrations and lack of financial resources. Sri Lanka�s Jayasuriya said that since the inauguration of the Colombo Municipal Council, 134 years ago, the city population had grown from 80,000 to 800,000.

"The density and increase in commercial and industrial activity also brought greater pressures on the council. Unplanned patterns of urban growth have caused economic inefficiency, environmental degradation and human misery," he said.

Mass migration, like many other Asian cities, had increased by leaps and bounds to Colombo and the delivery of services was at breaking point said Jayasuriya, who used his managerial skills as a former private sector executive to devise a plan to lift the council into a viable and effective local administration.

Harnessing the support of opposition councillors, municipal staff, civil society and professional groups, NGOs and the private sector, Jayasurita launched�what he called�a series of partnerships necessary to run an efficient administration.

"Developing a vision, mission and a plan for the council was essential for city management. We determined a sense of direction with a valid corporate plan�to know what is required in the management of the city and whether we are meeting our goals. This is the first time that a corporate plan was made public by a local authority in this country," he said.

In much the same vein, Rhina Bhar, a senior councillor at the Municipal Council of Penang, spoke of the "Sustainable Penang Initiative," which championed initiative and explored partnerships between civil society, state and business.

Bhar said that the local government in Penang, a state of 1,031 sq kilometres and with a population of 1.28 million, set up a think tank called the Socio-Economic & Environment Research Institute (SERI) which provided a forum for all stakeholders.

She said under this partnerships were built between the Malaysian Nature Society, the Penang government water authority, business and industry for a public campaign on water conservation while another was set up between pedestrians, users and cycle groups to promote cycling and infrastructure in two pilot areas.

Other partnerships were built to help disadvantaged groups as well as for environment protection, Bhar noted. Mohammed Bin Saib, president of the Kuantan Municipal Council in Malaysia said partnerships between the private and public sectors were always a win-win situation.

"There was success in many of the projects we jointly undertook," he said, Benjamin Abalos, mayor of the small Filipino city of Mandaluyong, said that the local authorities had no money to replace the city market that was destroyed in a fire.

In a pioneering move, Abalos offered state land for development under Build, Operate and Transfer (BOT) terms to the private sector for various development purposes and quickly raised millions of dollars for the local authority.

"We were not only able to generate large revenues but also able to construct a new mall free of charge. In a few years time we will own the facilities that have been developed by the private sector," he said. By turning an experiment into a successful venture, Mandaluyong city, became the first municipality in the Philippines to attract the private sector under a BOT arrangement.

Many of the cases of private sector-public sector partnerships cited at Monday�s meeting have become viable entities. Some of the issues discussed at the meeting were the need for some central government tax functions to be passed to municipalities to enable local authorities to increase tax revenues, fears of job losses by employees when the private sector provides services, conflicts between elected and appointed administrators, bureaucratic delays and safeguards to the private sector against political risk after agreements and contracts are finalised.

The Mayors� Forum is part of an ADB project to help municipalities in Asia to enhance their capacity to deliver services. The project began in September 1998 and goes on for 15 months.

"The programme involves the municipalities applying general management strategies to improve their service delivery. These strategies are benchmarking and continuous improvement. In doing so, the municipalities and the Bank are seeking evidence that such management strategies are applicable to their situation, are sustainable and can provide real benefits," the ADB said in a background note.