Masters of the city

Cities are a growth industry in Africa. The continent has experienced some of the fastest urbanisation rates globally in the last two decades, at 3.5 percent per year. By 2050, 60 percent of Africa’s population is expected to be urbanised.

Yet urban transformation has not led to greater affluence or better standards of living. African cities are the second most unequal in the world, according to the African Development Bank (AfDB). Most have developed organically and haphazardly, with little attention to centralised planning, infrastructure updates or zoning.

Keen to play a leading role reimagining the continent’s growing urban centres is Surbana International Consultants. The company built its profile shaping Singapore’s distinctive skyline, designing and building more than one million homes in 26 “integrated township” estates on the island. It has also helped to shape the country’s unique approach to housing and social policy.

“We have the technical expertise in housing a nation, knowledge of good corporate governance framework, coordination skills between different levels of government and between the private and public sectors,” explains Surbana’s CEO, Pang Yee Ean.

Surbana’s history can be traced back to the post-independence period, when it was the building and development division of the Singaporean government’s Housing & Development Board (HDB). The company was incorporated in 2003, and is now 60 percent owned by Singaporean sovereign wealth fund Temasek Holdings, and 40 percent by Asian real estate developer CapitaLand.

Surbana says its approach is about more than zoning and design. It is about engineering the socio-economic possibilities of urban spaces. For Singapore, urban planning was essential to moving the island from an impoverished former colony to a highly advanced, high tech economy in the space of half a century. Now, Surbana is looking to capitalise on this success story overseas.

“We have exported Singapore’s concept of integrated townships, adapting it to meet local needs to create holistic and sustainable living environments,” Surbana CEO Pang Yee Ean tells This Is Africa.

“Our value proposition lies in being able to help emerging economies shape their development strategy towards the path of sustainable growth, thereby facilitating growth for the region.”   

This proficiency has taken Surbana to more than 90 cities in 26 countries around the world. In Africa, the projects are starting to come in thick and fast.

“We should be planning two cities in Tanzania soon, we are planning the city of Bujumbura in Burundi, we are going to be in Nigeria, and in Mozambique very, very soon. And also in Angola” where Surbana has created the redevelopment master plans for three zones in the capital Luanda, says Mr Louis Tay, Surbana’s managing director for city management and of its Africa portfolio.

Perhaps Surbana’s highest profile project on the continent so far was creating the master plans for the city of Kigali, Rwanda. Rwandan President Paul Kagame is a known enthusiast of Singapore’s development model and its post-independence Prime Minister, Lee Kuan Yew. He frequently refers to his country as the “Singapore of Africa”.

Despite overseeing a period of impressive economic progress, President Kagame has faced criticism for his highly centralised leadership style – and for Rwanda’s involvement with military proxies in neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo. There are also concerns that the president, who has been in power since 2000, may attempt to hold on to power beyond the two terms allotted by the constitution.

Similar criticism has been leveled at Singapore’s one party political system, which has relied heavily on strong leadership at the expense of some political freedoms to shape the space needed for it to develop as quickly as it has. Whether the Singaporean model for the developmental state can work in more pluralistic political spaces remains to be seen.  

A model for urban transformation?

Singapore’s prowess in urban transformation was hard won through experience. For Singaporeans, economic development and urban planning are intimately linked.

“At the time of independence, Singapore was a basket-case of urbanisation – all the problems of urbanisation, we had [them] at the time,” says Hee Limin, director of research at Singapore’s Centre for Liveable Cities. “The first project after independence, the urgent task of the government, was to provide housing and jobs.”

Singapore gained its independence from the British in 1965. The fledgling nation was small, land poor and lacking in natural resources. Winding shantytowns lined the marshy island riverbanks. Sanitation problems and waterborne diseases were rampant, as were ethnic riots between Chinese and Malay migrant groups.

The stereotype of Singapore now is of a society with a mania for orderliness. Chewing gum is banned, jaywalking regarded as disruptive behavior, and graffiti punishable by hefty jail sentences. Yet underlying this national obsession is a drive for transformation.

“You cannot successfully develop a country through luck – it must be planned,” says Mr Tay.

“A lot of the time, we get people saying to us: you guys talk a lot, but you do not understand my problems. But I say: we were you, if you came to Singapore in 1960. We understand what you’re going through, because we were there before.”

For Singapore, urban evolution required setting up a highly trained, highly paid public sector with zero tolerance for corruption. According to Transparency International, Singapore is the fifth least corrupt country in the world. City master planning takes place decades in advance, with regular reviews scheduled to update the national vision. Once a plan is in place, it is followed through meticulously.

“Singapore has succeeded in developing quickly because it takes a no nonsense approach towards sustainable urbanisation given its limited land supply.  This is backed by a disciplined approach in implementing what has been planned while continuously reviewing what we do so that we remain nimble to changes,” says Mr Tay. 

This meticulous approach stems from the city planners’ constant awareness of the country’s limitations – especially space. Land optimisation is one of Singapore – and Surbana’s – specialities. The company has reclaimed 10 percent of the island’s land mass from its marshy origins.

“Land is a scarce commodity in Singapore and therefore land use planning is a very important aspect of Singapore’s urbanisation. In some other countries, one square kilometer does may not matter so much, but not in Singapore,” says Mr Tay.

Like many African cities, post-independence Singapore faced a widespread housing crisis. The approach to housing pioneered by Surbana – and in its former incarnation, the HBD – is a holistic one. The company’s integrated township models incorporate “not only new urbanism with local characteristics, but also integrated with art, technology, economics and philosophy,” according to Mr Pang.

State housing is widely used by the lower to middle classes due to Singapore’s skyrocketing market real estate prices. Young married couples apply through the government-run system. Once accepted, occupants pay a monthly ‘mortgage’ against a state-funded loan for their property; a portion of this contribution in turn goes towards their pension. The thinking behind this system is to ensure that occupants are stakeholders in the system, and that they have an interest in maintaining the value of the property.

Singapore’s townships are also feats of social engineering, designed to stave off the ethnic tensions that led to the race riots of its early post-colonial period. Housing estates all have race quotas, drawing from Singapore’s highly multicultural population. Residential land zoning regulations promote intermingling amongst socio-economic groups by requiring that social housing and private, luxury residences be interspersed throughout the city.

“Housing issues are the root causes of many problems. If you solve it, the other problems do not disappear, but you mitigate the other problems,” says Mr Tay.

Given the size and variety of African nations, replicating Singapore’s model is untenable. Mr Pang is careful to emphasize that any attempt to clone Singapore’s experiences overseas will result in sub-par results. However, he believes strategies that worked in Singapore can be adapted.

“We must first understand the environment and work with the local governments to tailor our processes so that they can be customised to meet the local conditions and ensure a better chance of success,” Mr Pang explains.  

Bridging sectors

Surbana’s former identity as a government agency means that it is well placed to undertake conversations around planning with the public sector – a particularly challenging area in many African states.

“Many of Surbana’s employees are former civil servants so they have a good appreciation of how policies can be shaped to support the national growth agenda through the masterplan, and are well-equipped to deal with this issue,” Mr Pang explains.

In the context of the company’s African projects, this means also being very conscious of the institutional constraints that can complicate a project’s implementation. While commercial viability is the primary consideration in project selection, shaping policy to ensure the necessary stability for implementation is seen as part of the process.

“Understanding the current government policies is a must as we undertake a masterplan. The plan has to be realistic. If the existing policies do not facilitate the implementation of the plan, we advise the governments on what needs to be changed.”

However, even with Surbana’s due diligence and policy guidance, implementation can sometimes stall. For instance, a Saudi client commissioned Surbana to plan a 640 hectare site in Algeria. Though the financing and plans were in place, the project never got off the ground because the Algerian government rescinded the land titles for the site.

Titling issues are not a uniquely African problem “but an issue that all countries must grapple with,” according to Mr Tay. However, policy inconsistency is often a challenge on African projects, where plans regularly succumb to the whims of political position jockeying.

“Countries in Africa tend to have various agencies pursue different objectives. It is about bringing these parties together to achieve a common objective through an integrated way of thinking,” says Mr Pang.

Singapore’s model for urban transformation developed under the specific conditions a small country with a tightly centralized political system. Whether this city-state’s experience can be successfully exported to Africa will be a trend to watch, and one that could shape the continent’s burgeoning urban landscapes for decades to come.

Source: http://www.thisisafricaonline.com/Business/Masters-of-the-city