Decongesting the metropolis

In the last five weeks, I’ve had the opportunity and the pleasure to visit Malaysia for three weekends, going to three different events in Sepang: one for the Lamborghini Aventador Dynamic Launch, another for the Audi Driving Experience featuring the Audi R8 V10 and the all-new Audi A6, and then the Malaysian MotoGP courtesy of Repsol.

On-track antics and excesses aside, one thing was really hammered into my tired, overworked and underutilized head: These Malaysians have a lot of superhighways!

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: The path to our country’s progress lies in more and more roads. We need bigger, better and wider roads, primarily to stimulate the local economy, secondly to decongest our existing roads, thereby speeding up traffic and travel time, and lastly, to decongest Metro Manila and get rid of the notion of over-population.

But aside from the roads, I noticed that Malaysia has been busy making new business districts or mini-cities such as Putrajaya and Cyberjaya.

Putrajaya is the seat of power in Malaysia. The vast majority of ministries have brand-new buildings to work in, and the entire Putrajaya has a central theme dominated by the bridge crossing a lake/river (which the Malays made) shaped like a fishing boat’s sail casting its net, and the Ministry of Finance in particular as the net itself, catching a good haul. It’s an amazing place, and it gives a lot of Malays pride in seeing their government in such a prestigious location with brand-new buildings.

By moving the seat of power away from the old-town Kuala Lumpur (it’s about 50 kilometers away, and with their superhighways, no more than 30 minutes away keeping well within the speed limit of 110 km/h), business, commercial establishments and housing will follow suit, decongesting Kuala Lumpur and spurring development and growth in the outer areas, and also creating proper suburbs which don’t feel like the boonies, often a concern for sophisticated city-dweller types who continually strive to live within the city despite the odds being against them. Government should give people a reason to relocate away from the city centers and help decongest the metropolis, while at the same time spurring growth outside of Metro Manila.

Cyberjaya is a good example, pretty much in the same vicinity/region of Putrajaya and the Sepang International Circuit. It is another new mini-city/business district with science and technology as its core theme. Various multimedia, technology and telecom giants have their offices in Cyberjaya, as it aspires to be the Silicon Valley of Malaysia. This large-scale development would not have been possible without government support, primarily in creating public infrastructure, funding and other incentives.

Why can the government not do something like this at a greater scale?

Sure we have Subic, Clark and other special export processing zones but, forget for a moment the fact that locators tend to get the raw end of the deal; aside from Subic and Clark, the other special economic zones don’t seem to have as much public infrastructure support from the government. Admittedly the Aquino administration has started a lot of noise (as of the moment) about the various road networks and projects it has planned, but the suits aren’t moving fast enough.

The private sector has slowly been offering to undertake some of the key infrastructure projects, but again, the suits aren’t moving fast enough, preferring to look good (perhaps to aspire for higher office or secure their tenure well into the end of the Aquino administration) and feel good rather than doing something actually good.

Make it easier for residents to move out of Metro Manila by building more, better, wider roads that are properly lit and maintained, utilizing willing partners in the private sector. Then give people special tax incentives to buy properties or set-up businesses outside of Metro Manila, or at least property developers who aim to build new mini-cities and business districts, while at the same time entreating foreign investors with even more incentives to locate outside of Metro Manila.

It sounds easy enough, I’ll have to admit but of course, implementing such a plan will take at least 10-15 years, pretty much the same time the Malaysian government took to plan, implement and establish Putrajaya and Cyberjaya. That’s a long time, but it’s better than waiting for nothing.