CityNet Mayors Share Insights on Financing Post-Pandemic Projects

CityNet participated in the Urban Finance Webinar that was organized by Think City and Global Development Indicator on July 28, 2020. The webinar is the second of its series that seeks to inform the global audience on the different challenges and opportunities for financing city development and resilience.

The webinar featured two city mayors – Hajah Noraini Binti Haji Roslan (Subang Jaya, Malaysia) and Arlene Arcillas (Santa Rosa, Philippines). They shared their current situation, strategies, and insights on their cities’ road to recovery from the impacts of COVID-19 pandemic. Subang Jaya and Santa Rosa are current CityNet members.

During the webinar, Mayor Arlene said the city expects lower revenue in 2021 due to COVID-19, delaying some of their infrastructure projects. For example, the construction of a new city college, supposedly for next year, will have to be postponed. However, the city is set to build health-related infrastructures to manage and reduce the risks of pandemic. In terms of financing, she added that her city is not dependent on the fiscal transfer from the national government. The city has some of the biggest manufacturing factories of the Philippines, which have become a major source of local revenue.

Meanwhile, Mayor Noraini said Subang Jaya will improve their roads and drainage to make them more resilient for natural hazards. Flooding has become a major problem in the city. For post COVID-19 investments, the city will improve their health infrastructures, and need assistance for planning higher density development, and improving their digital infrastructure.

Paulie Mora, CityNet Senior Program Officer, said that to reduce health risks, developing cities will have to accelerate their development to improve their digital infrastructure as it helps reducing face to face transactions. This includes streamlining local business applications, cashless payments, and online learning. In this regard, ‘CityNet has its investment marketplace session where cities get to pitch in their projects to prospective partners. We hope through this platform, we can help our members broaden their access to project financing especially to supporting their post COVID-19 investment projects,’ he added.

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2020.07.29

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CityNet and Seoul Human Resource Development Center are inviting city officers and local authorities to the online Training Programme on Low Carbon Built Environments and Sustainable Development Goals on April 24-May 12, 2023.

Learn about Seoul’s low-carbon practices in buildings, public transport, energy, and climate finance. Get to know our cities in #Asia developing solutions towards a low-carbon city. Exchange ideas with your peers and share your action plans.

Complete the Application Form at this link, citynet-ap.org/call-for-training-participants-in-low-carbon-built-environments-and-sdgs/

The deadline for Registration is on March 31, 2023, Friday.

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Cities in #AsiaPacific are responsible for 75% of the region’s CO2 emissions. Explore #ClimateAction to make low-carbon and resilient city a reality at #APFSD this March: http://unescap.org/events/2023/apfsd10-side-events-person-and-virtual #SDG11