November deadline slated for ‘green growth’ study

APEC CITOM DRY RUN/AUG.13,2015:Cebu City Traffic personel man the street of Pope John Paul in Barangay Mabolo during the Cebu City Traffic,Mandaue City Traffic and Lapu-Lapu City Traffic,LTO and PRO7 APEC dry run.(CDN PHOTO/LITO TECSON)

Cebu City has until next month to avail of a German government grant to participate in a study aimed at fostering “green growth” in fast-growing Asian cities.

To facilitate the city’s inclusion in the study, the Cebu City Council has called on Mayor Michael Rama and the executive department’s Local Finance Committee (LFC) to allocate P2.5 million in the city’s annual budget next year as counterpart fund.

Evelyn Nacario-Castro, head of the Metro Cebu Development and Coordinating Board (MCDCB) Research, Program and Organizational Development (RPOD) Project Management Office, said they were preparing the requirements for the study.

“We are coordinating with OECD for preliminary requirements including available information. Knowledge sharing workshop with other Asian cities planned for December this year,” Nacario-Castro, who is currently out of the country, told Cebu Daily News in a text message yesterday.

SCOPE

Mega Cebu has been identified, nominated and invited as the project’s fifth case study.

Aside from Cebu, the study will also examine Bangkok in Thailand, Johor Bahru/Iskandar in Malaysia, Bandung in Indonesia and Hai Phong in Vietnam.

The study, dubbed as the “Urban Green Growth in Dynamic Asia Project,” is to be conducted later this year until next year.

It will produce a report titled “Green Growth in Cebu, the Philippines” which will consider a theme affecting Cebu’s green competitiveness.

“The project aims to explore ways of fostering growth in fast-growing cities and city-regions in Asia by examining policies on promoting greening and competitiveness in a fast-growing economy,” read the resolution authored by Councilor Nestor Archival Sr.

The City Council passed the resolution during its regular session last week.

The study is spearheaded by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

The OECD is an organization of 34 countries whose mission is to promote policies that will improve the economic and social well-being of people around the world.

COLLABORATION

The study will also recommend policies to be implemented to achieve green growth.

It will be a collaborative project between Cebu and OECD.

While OECD anchors the full analysis of the Cebu metropolitan region and produce the report, Cebu is requested to help support the project by supplying data, hosting the study team during missions and participating in and co-organizing peer learning workshops and assigning a counterpart team.

Cebu is also expected to grant a monetary contribution of 25 to 50 percent of the total study cost which is 200,000 euros or roughly P10 million.

Majority of the cost, or 50 to 75 percent, will be covered by OECD and the German government.

ROAD MAP

Nacario-Castro earlier said this OECD project study will complement the Roadmap Study for Sustainable Urban Development in Metro Cebu.

The roadmap study, which was assisted by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), focuses heavily on the physical and infrastructure needs for Metro Cebu Development.

The OECD study will focus on the policies needed for Metro Cebu’s social and economic development.

The MCDCB earlier wrote to Rama, who is also a co-chairman to the MCDCB, asking for support to the project study.

The letter was signed by MCDCB co-chair and Cebu Gov. Hilario Davide III, co-chair and Ramon Aboitiz Foundation Inc. (RAFI) president Roberto Aboitiz and MCDCB secretary and National Economic Development Authority (NEDA) 7 regional director Efren Carreon./With Cebu Technological University Intern Marc Cosep