Shifting to Planned Urbanization in Asia: The role of Development and South-South Cooperation

Abstract

In 2011, the Asian Development Bank described the 21st century as the Asian Century, highlighting the region’s dramatic economic growth, its success in poverty alleviation, and the probability that Asian countries will account for half of global GDP by 2050 (ADB, 2011). Asia’s high growth rates have coincided with dramatic urbanization. Between 1980 and 2010, the region’s urban population grew by more than 1 billion; in 2018, it will exceed the rural population for the first time. By 2050, two-thirds of Asian-Pacific dwellers will be urban, and the region will host the majority of the world’s 40 mega-cities, with populations of ten million or more. This massive urban transition has no historical precedent (UNESCAP, 2017). Therefore, it may be more apt to speak of this epoch as the Asian urban century (Mohan, 2006). Despite this rapid migration, approximately half of the continent’s population still live in rural areas (World Bank, 2015a; 2015b). This suggests that the influx of migrants to Asian cities is likely to continue, accelerating economic growth and regional dynamism, but also straining the region’s resources.