The findings of the Inquiries can be readily summarized. They tended to be common across the four Inquiries, and among the countries to show both similarities and differences. The countries in the sample vary from the wealthy and industrialized Japan, to the recently rapidly developing and wealthy South Korea, to those that are typically called countries from the Less Developed Regions. Even among these latter, however, Southeast Asian countries are somewhat more wealthy and developed than those from South Asia. As we shall see, many of the perceived problems are related to the wealth of the country. Others, however appear to transcend wealth and development. Some of the findings will come as no surprise, others might not have been predicted.


a) Cites and Respondents

Most of the cities surveyed were, as planned, medium-sized cities. There were, however, always a few very large cities, such as Bombay, Delhi, Shanghai, and Pusan. There were also some very small cities from Nepal and Thailand. But the great majority of the cities were between 100,000 and 1 million. Moreover, most of the respondents in the first three rounds were indeed Mayors or high level administrators. The Inquiries thus, on the whole, provide us with the views of upper level urban administrators from medium sized cities. There were some exceptions in respondents, but these proved enlightening.


b) Perceptions of Size, Growth and Migration
Administrators from all countries except Japan perceive their cities to be growing rapidly. They also note that in-migration is a major source of that growth. Japanese administrators perceive, correctly, that their cities are more stagnant, and some even find they are losing population to modest movements of out-migration. For many, the problems of rapid growth and in-migration present urgent and major problems. They see the in-migrants and rapid growth straining the physical infrastructure of the city. Utilities, housing and employment cannot keep up with the influx.

But in-migration is also seen as a mixed blessing. The in-migrants are seen as being young, often better education and productive, thus providing a potentially productive human resource. Even where they see in-migration as a problem, however, the administrators feel that there is little they can do to alter the flows. No cities are perceived as having policies or programs to slow the rate of in-migration. It is simply something one must live with.

A Surprise: Urban Boundaries Need Expanding One of the surprising findings is the substantial proportions of administrators who feel that the boundaries of their cities need to be expanded. They see boundary expansion as necessary for more effective urban planning. This echoes findings of the first comparative study of Singapore and Kobe, where urban boundary expansion was a necessary condition for more effective urban planning.

c) Major Successes with Family Planning, Health and Education

With the extended list of problem areas, and the urban administrators' scores on each of those areas, it is clear that they see education, health and family planning as major areas of success. In all countries except Japan, family planning tended to get the highest scores, and to be recognized for its success in slowing population growth both in the city and in the country more generally. In Japan, high fertility has not been an issue or the past generation, and family planning is not a high priority government program.

Education is also seen as an area of at least relative success. Primary and secondary education are seen as less serious problems than others the cities face.

In the reports, it was noted that this finding fits well with the history of development throughout Asia. Over the past four decades, Asian nations have made substantial progress in reducing mortality, expanding education, and especially in reducing fertility through effective family planning programs.

Pakistan provides the exception that proves this rule. Despite having a higher per capita income that either India or Bangladesh, it has higher infant mortality, higher fertility, lower levels of contraceptive use and lower levels of female primary education than either India or Bangladesh. Pakistan has not been very successful in turning its greater wealth into greater welfare. And it is only in Pakistan that urban administrators consistently rate population growth, family planning and primary education as urgent major problems.

d) Major Problems: Urban Infrastructure and Transportation

Consistently, urban administrators from the poorer countries rate urban infrastructure as the most serious problems. Utilities, water, waste management and transportation facilities are all being overwhelmed by the twin forces of population growth and economic development and pose urgent and major problems. They typically score the lowest in quality, or the highest in the problem areas.

The differences among cities in these judgments are clearly related to levels of national economic development. Japanese administrators show relatively little concern with public utilities, as might be expected, though transportation and air pollution from vehicular exhaust are for them, as well as for others, serious problems. For the poorer countries of Southeast and South Asia, these infrastructural problems are commonly seen as urgent and major problems.

Personnel and Resource Control. In the first round, administrators were asked about the quantity and quality of their urban personnel, and about their direct control over financial resources for the city. In the less developed regions, the results were quite striking. Administrators tended to rate the quality of their personnel quite high, but there was a serious problem in their control over resources. In effect, the administrators were saying that they had the personnel needed to achieve desired results, and would like more control over the resources needed to proceed. This reflects a common problem of central control and the need to devolve resources, authority and responsibility, which emerged in the 1987 Medium-Sized Cities Conferences. It is also a problem that has been recognized by urban scholars for some time.

An Enlightening Error: Central Distrust and Local Capacity In the first round of the Inquiry, there was an error in the survey administration in Nepal. Although all access persons were asked to send the questionnaires to local urban administrators for completion, in Nepal the questionnaires for all five towns were completed by an official of the central government in Katmandu. Nepal also showed the reverse of the other countries on judgments of personnel quality and resource control. This central official tended to see the quality of urban administrative personnel as a major problem. On the other hand, he did not see a problem in the control of resources. The reversal in the score was pronounced and dramatic, lending support to the views of other local urban administrators, who believe they have the quality of personnel needed to be effective, and wish more control over the financial resources that are controlled by the central government.

Housing. Perceptions of housing vary by level of economic development, as might be expected, but even here there are some common perceptions. The homeless, or people without shelter are urgent and major problems in South and Southeast Asia. They are not problems in Japan, Korea, or Malaysia. Beyond the homeless, however, there is a similar gradient for all countries: housing for low income people is more of a problem than housing for high income groups. Even in the poorest countries, high income housing does not seem to be much of a problem for the urban administrators.

Employment. Perceptions of the employment are also clearly tied to the level of national economic development. It is not perceived as a problem for Japan, nor for South Korea or Malaysia. It is a very serious problem, however, for the other countries. In these countries, however, it is only male unemployment that stands out as a serious problem in the minds of the administrators. They do not see that female unemployment or child labor is much of a problem.

Data and Assistance Needs of the Administrators. In the first round, administrators were asked to identify their needs in data and information. For the most part they spoke of needing data for urban planning: population growth, migration, and aerial distribution of both people and economic activities.