An Asian approach to millennium development

ASPA 9th International Congress in Colombo

by Plnr. K. D. Fernando

No need to say that planning, be it physical planning or economic planning, is an important task of any nation states towards progressive development of the quality of life of its inhabitants as well as the quality of its living environments. With the on going rapid changes all over the world, the need of planning is increasingly felt.

However, planning is a discipline very much related with the context of its operations and planners have to address the ground realities of the situations they deal with. Yet, besides the centuries old planning traditions inherited by many Asian nations, contemporary town planning in all over Asia is highly preoccupied by the norms and concepts of post-industrial planning practices in the West.

The emerging trends in the world economy and the prevalent tendencies of international politics clearly indicate a leading role for Asia to play in all kind of affairs in the world, including planning. The criticality of planning towards all kinds of endeavours is highlighted by several factors such as; that Asia is the home for nearly forty per cent of the world population; many of its states are experiencing rapid economic development even amidst political turmoil and ethno-nationalistic uprise; and the rich, long dated, and diverse natural and cultural heritage they inherit etc.

The Western models of planning have merits of their own, but over many decades by now they have proved to be inadequate to address the myriad of complex issues related to the socio-economic development of Asian states, which in some ways are unique to the region, although indiscriminately integrated with worldly affairs. Hence, there arises a need to search for alternative planning models that can be appropriated to Asian societies, deviating from conventional ones.

The development of such alternatives necessitates an intellectual discourse on problems, prospects, lessons, possible scenarios and future directions of planning in Asia, in the context of global affairs related to planning. The Asian Planning Schools Association is going to initiate grounds for a healthy discourse for such in its 9th International Congress, which is scheduled for Aug. 27 and 28 in Colombo.

The Department of Town and Country Planning of the University of Moratuwa, which is the host organisation of the Congress, expects to make it a venue to facilitate the grounds for this discourse at a time when global attention is drawn towards millennium development goals.

The Department of Town and Country Planning, University of Moratuwa is the premier planning school in Sri Lanka and one of the pioneering members of the Asian Planning Schools Association (APSA). It is proud to bring down Asian planning scholars, practitioners and related professionals to Sri Lanka with the support of the University's many other organisations.

At one level, the issues pertaining to development of Asian countries will be highlighted through the deliberations at the Congress, not per se, but to take action for implementation. Therefore, this event is unique in exploring the opportunities available in the Asian organisations such as SAARC, BMISTEC, and ASEAN etc.

This is to establish a network of Asian countries through APSA to make the 21st century development of Asia in its true sense of emerging economic power of the world. On the other, the Congress will be a venue to question the established norms and dominant conceptions of Asia and planning. At this level APSA undertakes a formidable task of setting up the appropriate knowledge base and research directions in order to proceed towards harnessing development potential of the Asian countries. One of the challenging tasks in this regard is to get away from popular conceptions such as 'less or chaotically urbanised', 'primitive societies', 'economically backward' and 'sparsely modernised', enforced by the so-called civilised world on Asian societies. Many development issues in Asia or for that reason elsewhere in the world is a manifestation of deprivation of socio-economic rights of the people to use land for residential and for employment. It is within this context, that UN declared Millennium Development goals need to be revisited through Asian development perspectives.

The Congress is coloured with many paper presentations and three keynote addresses. Professor Terrie McGee an eminent speaker on urbanisation in Asia will address on the questions associated with the dominant Western concepts of planning and urban development, in the context of urbanisation trends in China, India and other Asian countries, which are unique in its character.

Professor Willie Mendis, former Vice Chancellor of the University and a well-known town planner, will address the issues and challenges of planning education in Asia that needs attention at all levels to develop healthy grounds for truly Asian development. Dr. Nihal Perera will talk on his research findings on contesting ideologies on Asia and Asian approaches to planning. The organising committee is pleased to announce that the venue at BMICH is open to all interest groups.

(The writer is the Vice Chairman of the 9th APSA Congress and former executive member of APSA)