EXPERTS from across Asia and the world will arrive in Yangon this week for a conference on preserving Yangon’s unique cityscape.
Organised by the Yangon Heritage Trust, participants at the June 1 conference, Towards a Conservation Strategy for Yangon in the 21st Century, will seek to “find creative ways” forward for a city preservation strategy, founder Dr Thant Myint-U told The Myanmar Times last week.
“We will have more than 100 participants, including Myanmar and international urban planners, architects, historians, businessmen, NGOs, as well as Myanmar government officials and the United Nations,” he said.
Yangon Region Chief Minister U Myint Swe and Yangon Mayor U Hla Myint are scheduled to address the gathering, while Union Minister for Industry U Soe Thein – a “big supporter” of the trust – is also expected to attend.
The main conference will be preceded by a smaller experts-only session the day before, he said. “The entire week, not just the conference, will be an opportunity for Myanmar and international experts to meet and discuss the challenges we face in protecting Yangon’s unique heritage, to learn lessons from experiences overseas and seek practical solutions,” he said.
“We’ve done a lot of thinking, not only on the sorts of regulatory reforms that might be necessary, but also on ways of attracting the needed financial resources, which will be very substantial, and at the same time not only protecting local communities, but also generating new jobs in downtown Yangon.
“We hope the conference will help to highlight the urgency of the issue and move us towards very concrete recommendations for the Myanmar government.”
Yangon boasts the largest stock of colonial-era buildings in Southeast Asia but many have suffered as a result of years of neglect. Population pressures have resulted in many buildings being demolished to make way for condominiums and other developments.
As The Myanmar Times reported in March, the Yangon Heritage Trust has been given a window of opportunity to come up with a viable private-sector led preservation plan for the city. The government has reportedly put in place a moratorium on demolition of buildings over 50 years of age.
Volunteers are helping the trust, which was established earlier this year, to undertake a survey of the downtown area. It is hoped that surveys of most of the major buildings will be completed soon.
But Dr Thant Myint-U said there was a misperception that the trust was “focused on just the public colonial-era buildings”.
“It’s important that this effort not be seen as just about saving the old buildings, but also about protecting Yangon’s historic cityscape. There is nothing like it left in Asia. It’s an incredible asset and we need to have a robust conservation strategy as part of a more general urban plan to modernise Yangon,” he said.
He said there had been an “amazing” level of public interest in the preservation campaign but “people sometimes don’t realise the enormity of the task”.
“Properly renovating the Secretariat for example may take US$100 million or more. Just the operating costs could be over $1 million a year. Again, we have to find creative ways forward that bring together government, business, and local communities. It could be a model for many of the other challenges” the country faces, he said.
Dr Thant Myint-U said the trust’s next move would “depend on the outcome of the conference and on the other discussions we will be having around that time, and on the reaction of the government to our recommendations”.
“I think people have a sense that Yangon is at inflection point. It could easily go the way of other Asian cities – heavily polluted, with terrible traffic congestion, big concrete towers and little or nothing to distinguish it from any other Asian city. Or we could plan properly and protect what we have – not just the Shwedagon [Pagoda] but the sublime views of Shwedagon from all around the city, the lakes and the many green spaces, the old homes and buildings, the historic tree-lined avenues and downtown areas, the university campus and so on and build a modern 21st century city around that. It would make Yangon the most liveable and beautiful city in the region.”
Organised by the Yangon Heritage Trust, participants at the June 1 conference, Towards a Conservation Strategy for Yangon in the 21st Century, will seek to “find creative ways” forward for a city preservation strategy, founder Dr Thant Myint-U told The Myanmar Times last week.
“We will have more than 100 participants, including Myanmar and international urban planners, architects, historians, businessmen, NGOs, as well as Myanmar government officials and the United Nations,” he said.
Yangon Region Chief Minister U Myint Swe and Yangon Mayor U Hla Myint are scheduled to address the gathering, while Union Minister for Industry U Soe Thein – a “big supporter” of the trust – is also expected to attend.
The main conference will be preceded by a smaller experts-only session the day before, he said. “The entire week, not just the conference, will be an opportunity for Myanmar and international experts to meet and discuss the challenges we face in protecting Yangon’s unique heritage, to learn lessons from experiences overseas and seek practical solutions,” he said.
“We’ve done a lot of thinking, not only on the sorts of regulatory reforms that might be necessary, but also on ways of attracting the needed financial resources, which will be very substantial, and at the same time not only protecting local communities, but also generating new jobs in downtown Yangon.
“We hope the conference will help to highlight the urgency of the issue and move us towards very concrete recommendations for the Myanmar government.”
Yangon boasts the largest stock of colonial-era buildings in Southeast Asia but many have suffered as a result of years of neglect. Population pressures have resulted in many buildings being demolished to make way for condominiums and other developments.
As The Myanmar Times reported in March, the Yangon Heritage Trust has been given a window of opportunity to come up with a viable private-sector led preservation plan for the city. The government has reportedly put in place a moratorium on demolition of buildings over 50 years of age.
Volunteers are helping the trust, which was established earlier this year, to undertake a survey of the downtown area. It is hoped that surveys of most of the major buildings will be completed soon.
But Dr Thant Myint-U said there was a misperception that the trust was “focused on just the public colonial-era buildings”.
“It’s important that this effort not be seen as just about saving the old buildings, but also about protecting Yangon’s historic cityscape. There is nothing like it left in Asia. It’s an incredible asset and we need to have a robust conservation strategy as part of a more general urban plan to modernise Yangon,” he said.
He said there had been an “amazing” level of public interest in the preservation campaign but “people sometimes don’t realise the enormity of the task”.
“Properly renovating the Secretariat for example may take US$100 million or more. Just the operating costs could be over $1 million a year. Again, we have to find creative ways forward that bring together government, business, and local communities. It could be a model for many of the other challenges” the country faces, he said.
Dr Thant Myint-U said the trust’s next move would “depend on the outcome of the conference and on the other discussions we will be having around that time, and on the reaction of the government to our recommendations”.
“I think people have a sense that Yangon is at inflection point. It could easily go the way of other Asian cities – heavily polluted, with terrible traffic congestion, big concrete towers and little or nothing to distinguish it from any other Asian city. Or we could plan properly and protect what we have – not just the Shwedagon [Pagoda] but the sublime views of Shwedagon from all around the city, the lakes and the many green spaces, the old homes and buildings, the historic tree-lined avenues and downtown areas, the university campus and so on and build a modern 21st century city around that. It would make Yangon the most liveable and beautiful city in the region.”
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