There are four major policy implications that can be derived from even this limited attempt to assess modern urban problems from the perspective of the local urban administrator.

1. Information and Training. Urban administrators want more training and information in the process of urban planning. They also want more data, and data collection skills, on urban conditions. These are things that international development assistance programs can easily provide.

2. Infrastructure Needs. It is clear that most of the problems faced by the urban administrators derive from the lack of urban physical infrastructure, which is being heavily strained by rapid urban growth. The obvious solution is for the expansion of physical construction. Urban construction, of everything from houses to sewage systems and water supply, will help immensely. Since this is an area in which foreign assistance has often played an important role, foreign donors could consider expanding assistance for urban infrastructure development to address many of the basic problems that cities face.*2

3. Employment and Income. Urban problems also derive from the combined and interrelated conditions of poverty, low income and lack of housing. This gives a double advantage to urban infrastructure construction projects. They can provide both the infrastructure and the employment that are needed to address the combined problems of poverty and urban development.

4. Administrative Training and Reform. Asian urban administrators are telling us that they want more and better data for urban planning, and more skills in urban planning. But they also tell us that reforms to decentralize power and authority can help greatly. Foreign assistance can often provide the training, data and skills, but national governments will have to attend to the administrative decentralization that appears to be needed. To this end, country governments are encouraged to listen to their own urban administrators. These are the front line workers whose local knowledge of how to get things done should inform central governments.

*2. It has been suggested that such construction programmes can also exacerbate problems, since they tend to draw migrants in search of employment. Urban administrators will wish to consider whether the problems of increased migration might be greater then the benefits of the construction.