{"id":3143,"date":"2018-03-12T08:07:24","date_gmt":"2018-03-12T08:07:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/icleiseas.org\/?p=3143"},"modified":"2018-03-12T08:16:20","modified_gmt":"2018-03-12T08:16:20","slug":"clean-green-and-safe-the-philippines-first-sustainable-city-to-be-built-by-2022","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/icleiseas.org\/index.php\/2018\/03\/12\/clean-green-and-safe-the-philippines-first-sustainable-city-to-be-built-by-2022\/","title":{"rendered":"Clean, green and safe: The Philippines\u2019 first sustainable city to be built by 2022"},"content":{"rendered":"
By: Ping Manongdo, Eco-Business.com<\/span><\/a><\/h5>\n

A metropolis that is green and lush, where the air is clean, where it\u2019s safe to walk or bike on the road, and where everyone feels like\u00a0<\/strong>they belong.<\/p>\n

This doesn\u2019t sound like a city in the Philippines, but it soon will be, thanks to a new partnership between the Bases Conversion Development Authority (BCDA),\u00a0Singaporean urban developer Surbana Jurong and Japan\u2019s Overseas Infrastructure Investment for Transport and Urban Development (JOIN)\u00a0to build the archipelago nation\u2019s first smart, green, and disaster-resilient city.<\/p>\n

The project, which will be known as New Clark City, will be located in the vast flat lands of Capas and Bamban, Tarlac in central Luzon, and is envisioned to\u00a0be completed\u00a0<\/strong>in 2022.<\/p>\n

The 9,450-hectare\u00a0city located\u00a0<\/strong>inside the Clark Special Economic Zone, will\u00a0<\/strong>be on\u00a0<\/strong>par with other modern cities in the world, according to project developers.<\/p>\n

BCDA, Surbana Jurong and JOIN signed a memorandum of cooperation (MOC) last month signalling the official start of the development. The signing was led by BCDA president and chief executive officer Vivencio Dizon, JOIN president and chief executive officer Takuma Hatano, and Surbana Jurong group chief executive officer Wong Heang Fine.<\/p>\n

Engineering and urban development firms AECOM, Nippon Koei and Philkoei International will also join the project as partners.<\/p>\n

As part of the collaboration, Surbana Jurong will assist BCDA in creating the overall sustainable management framework for the city, which will feature a fully integrated infrastructure and utilities for power, water, sewerage, information and communication technology (ICT), security, and traffic management while ensuring environmental protection.<\/p>\n

The Singaporean urban developer will also help secure investors for\u00a0the city\u2019s development through Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) and will advise the pioneering developers on how\u00a0<\/strong>to implement the plan.\u00a0Pioneer developers include Filinvest Land, Inc., and Malaysia\u2019s MTD Capital Berhad.<\/p>\n

Wong Heang Fine,\u00a0Surbana Jurong\u2019s group chief executive officer, said the New Clark City has tremendous potential to bring about sustainable growth and create jobs locally.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe city will ultimately bring about long-lasting economic and social benefits for the country,\u201d Wong said\u00a0in a statement.<\/p>\n

JOIN on the other hand will lead the construction of the Manila-Clark Railway, which will be one of Japan\u2019s biggest projects in the Philippines. The 106-kilometre railway will connect Tutuban, a major commercial and trade district in Manila, to the New Clark City and international airport, and is designed to shuttle up to 350,000 passengers a day.<\/p>\n

Takuma Hatano, chief executive officer and president, JOIN,\u00a0said the new railway will provide a more\u00a0<\/strong>efficient and comfortable travel experience to commuters, a long-awaited relief in the country where riding jam–<\/strong>packed metro trains that often break down is the daily struggle of many Filipinos.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe railway will immensely benefit commuters as it will cut down travel time from Manila to Clark to one\u00a0<\/strong>hour, from the current\u00a0two to three\u00a0hours\u2019 travel time,\u201d Hatano said.<\/p>\n

What having a smart city will mean to Filipinos<\/strong><\/p>\n

For Filipinos who contend with a host of economic and social issues every day, the idea of a sustainable city might be far-fetched, but this should not be so.<\/p>\n

Thomas Tang, former sustainability director at AECOM who was involved in the planning stage of the New Clark City in 2015, said that\u00a0<\/strong>Filipinos should understand that having a smart city does not necessarily mean it is so futuristic that it is beyond the means or imagination of most people.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn that vein, basic necessities like healthcare issues, reducing traffic congestion, improving housing, tackling public security and energy reliability\u00a0should be addressed before you start thinking about advanced technology,\u201d said\u00a0<\/strong>Tang, who is also Eco-Business\u2019s\u00a0<\/strong>country director for partnerships in Hong Kong and Malaysia.<\/p>\n

Tang added that this is not to say that\u00a0technology solutions such as the\u00a0Internet of Things (IoT), which interconnects everyday technology,\u00a0are not valuable.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is possible to leapfrog old technologies and create new economic opportunities,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor the Philippines, smart cities should also be resilient. So smart systems should also be mindful of environmental concerns like clean energy, better use of resources and capacity building of populations,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Val Bugnot, a spokesperson for the Southeast Asian office for local governments and sustainability of the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI), a global network that helps cities become sustainable by transitioning to a low-carbon economy and adopting smart infrastructure, said that one thing Filipinos must understand is that beyond infrastructure, it is the people that will make smart and sustainable cities happen.<\/p>\n

\u201cBuilding sustainable cities starts with our personal choices: Walking, biking, reducing plastic use can go a long way in ensuring cities become resilient and sustainable,\u201d she told Eco-Business in an interview.<\/p>\n

ICLEI, through its Ambitious City Promise project, has been working with highly urbanised and progressive cities in the Philippines like Pasig, Paranaque and Marikina to get people involved in climate action and in building inclusive and resilient cities.<\/p>\n

The network is also conducting a series of dialogues with national and local governments in the country to localise the implementation of climate action plans; this is a crucial step towards creating sustainable and liveable cities.<\/p>\n

Bugnot said\u00a0sustainable cities are not built overnight and by governments alone. She challenged\u00a0<\/strong>Filipinos to take part in building more resilient and sustainable cities in the country.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo the common Pinoy, developing cities usually means having more jobs and opportunities so it\u2019s usually good news for everyone,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Bugnot added: \u201cHowever, sustainable, clean, green, and resilient cities bring in a grounded and holistic approach to development which doesn\u2019t only forward economic development but makes sure that the people are healthy, happy, and safe in their surroundings, while ensuring the protection for the environment.\u201d<\/p>\n

This article first appeared at Eco-Business.com.<\/em><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By: Ping Manongdo, Eco-Business.com A metropolis that is green and lush, where the air is clean, where it\u2019s safe to walk or bike on the road, and where everyone feels like\u00a0they belong. This doesn\u2019t sound like a city in the Philippines, but it soon will be, thanks to a new partnership between the Bases Conversion […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":3145,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52,51],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3143","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured-news","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/icleiseas.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3143","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/icleiseas.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/icleiseas.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/icleiseas.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/icleiseas.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3143"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/icleiseas.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3143\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3150,"href":"https:\/\/icleiseas.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3143\/revisions\/3150"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/icleiseas.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3145"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/icleiseas.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/icleiseas.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/icleiseas.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}