Yangon City Development Committee

Yangon City Development Committee (Burmese: ရန်ကုန်မြို့တော် စည်ပင်သာယာရေး ကော်မတီ, abbreviated YCDC) is the administrative body of Yangon, the largest city and former capital of Myanmar (Burma). It consists of 20 departments, with headquarters in the Yangon City Hall.[2] The committee's chairman also acts as the city's mayor.[3]

Yangon City Development Committee
ရန်ကုန်မြို့တော် စည်ပင်သာယာရေး ကော်မတီ

Yangon City Hall
Agency overview
FormedMay 14, 1990 (1990-05-14)
Preceding agencies
  • Rangoon Municipal Committee
  • Rangoon City Corporation
JurisdictionCity of Yangon
HeadquartersYangon City Hall
Annual budgetK 15 billion (2003)[1]
Minister responsible
Websitewww.ycdc.gov.mm

The YCDC is technically independent of the government, and raises its own revenues through tax collection, fees, licenses and property development.[4] In the 2011-2012 budget year, YCDC had an estimated deficit of Ks 5 billion, because of high spending on road construction and purchase of waste collection vehicles.[5]

History

On 14 May 1990, the Yangon City Development Law formally established the present incarnation of YCDC, delegating wide responsibilities to this body, including city planning, land administration, tax collection, and development.[2] However, the YCDC is also responsible for duties stipulated in the 1922 Rangoon Municipal Act.[3]

e-Government initiative

In 2003, YCDC was organized to provide e-Government for Yangon City. The main purposes of the city's e-Government program are to provide easy access between the government and the city's citizens via the Internet, to reduce paper usage, to reduce the city budget, to build the city's fiber ring, to provide timely public information, to store public data and to develop and expand G2G, G2C, G2B, and G2E programs.

In January 2013 responsibility for e-Government was divided between the e-Government Administration Committee and the e-Government Processing Committee. The e-Government Administration Committee includes the Mayor of Yangon City as Patron, the Secretary of YCDC as Chairman, and the other 20 head of departments member. The e-Government Working Committee includes the Head of Public Relations and Information Department as Chairman.

Responsibilities

The YCDC is responsible for the city's:

  • waste management (including collection and treatment)[6]
  • business licenses and registries[7]
  • water supply[2]
  • roads and bridges[2]
  • environmental regulations[2]
  • maintenance of public property (including parks, heritage sites)[3]
  • street lighting[3]
  • firefighting[4]

Cemetery maintenance

YCDC's environmental maintenance department maintains 8 cemeteries in Yangon:[8]

  1. Yayway Cemetery, North Okkalapa Township
  2. Hteinbin Cemetery, Hlaingthaya Township
  3. Kyizu Cemetery (ကျီစုသုသာန်), Dagon Seikkan Township
  4. Daweigyaung Cemetery (ထားဝယ်ချောင်သုသာန်), North Dagon Township
  5. Kyugyaung Cemetery (ကျူချောင်သုသာန်), Shwepyitha Township
  6. Dala Cemetery (ဒလသုသာန်), Dala Township
  7. Seikkan Khanaungto Cemetery (ဆိပ်ကမ်းခနောင်တိုသုသာန်), Seikkyi Kanaungto Township
  8. Seikgyi Cemetery (ဆိပ်ကြီးသုသာန်), Kyimyindaing Township.

Organization

The YCDC is organized as follows:[3]

  • Cabinet
    • Mayor
    • Secretary
    • Joint-Secretary
    • Committee Members No.(4) to No.(9)

YCDC organization chart
  1. Committee Office
  2. Administration Department
  3. Budget and Accounts Department
  4. Inspection Department
  5. Co-ordination Department
  6. Assessor Department
  7. Revenue Department
  8. Markets Department
  9. Veterinary and Slaughter House Department
  10. Pollution Control and Cleansing Department
  11. Engineering Department (Roads & Bridges)
  12. Engineering Department(Buildings)
  13. Engineering Department (Water & Sanitation)
  14. Motor Transport & Workshop Department
  15. Central Stores Department
  16. Playgrounds, Parks & Gardens Department
  17. Security and Disciplinary Department
  18. City Planning & Land Administration Department
  19. Health Department
  20. Public Relations and Informations Department
  21. Production Department
  22. Yangon City Golf Club
  23. Yangon City Bank

Controversy

YCDC's construction permit system has been criticized for its inefficiency; the average construction time is 2-3 years, because permissions are required from at least 6 YCDC bodies.[9]

In 2015, the YCDC suspended a massive development project called Dagon City, to be built near Shwedagon Pagoda, for failing to adhere to regulations stipulating the building height limits in the vicinity of the pagoda, which is a heritage site.[10][11] In 2015, YCDC's tender selection process for the construction of the Mindhamma Secondary Central Business District in Mayangon Township was called into question by non-selected bidders.[12]

In April 2018, Zaykabar Company demolished a Yangon heritage site, the Mayor's Residence, which is listed on the YCDC's Yangon City Heritage List.[13] The demolition sparked controversy over YCDC's oversight from watchdog groups like the Yangon Heritage Trust.[13] YCDC subsequently granted approval for Zaykabar to construct a $500 million development project, the Myayeiknyo Royal Project, on the site of the former heritage building.[14] The project has also been opposed by locals for its proximity to other heritage sites like Shwedagon Pagoda, and for concerns that the development may impact the adjacent Kokkine reservoir, which distributes water to eight townships.[15] In June 2018, due to ongoing controversy, the Burmese military ordered Zaykabar to reconstruct the Mayor's Residence "in the original style."[16] Later that year, in October 2018, the military terminated its lease contract with Zaykabar, over contractual breaches, as Zaykabar had signed a joint venture agreement with a Chinese company.[17]

In 2018, Yangon Region Hluttaw lawmakers criticized YCDC's US$80 million loan from the French Development Agency to dredge Pazundaung Creek to develop a waterfront corridor.[18] In October 2019, YCDC courted controversy from the Yangon Region Hluttaw over the purchase of 80 vehicles at a cost of US$1.37 million for city officials.[19]

YCDC sits on the board of directors of the New Yangon City Development Company, which is the developer of a controversial development project, the Yangon New City Project.[20] YCDC has overseen infrastructure tenders for the project.[21]

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References
  1. "Public-Private Partnership for Yangon's Water Supply" (PDF). Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  2. Kraas, Frauke; Hartmut Gaese; Mi Mi Kyi (2006). Megacity Yangon. LIT Verlag Münster. ISBN 9783825800420.
  3. Cities and sustainable development. United Nations. Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific. 2003. ISBN 9789211203677.
  4. Etherton, David. Human Settlements Sector Review: Union of Myanmar. UN-HABITAT. ISBN 9789211311280.
  5. Kyaw Hsu Mon; Yadana Htun (7 November 2011). "Yangon Region govt facing K22b budget black hole". Myanmar Times. Retrieved 9 March 2012.
  6. James, Helen. Governance and civil Society in Myanmar: Education,health, and environment. Routledge. pp. 121–122. ISBN 9781134254002.
  7. Fujita, Kōichi; Fumiharu Mieno; Ikuko Okamoto (2009). The Economic Transition in Myanmar After 1988. NUS Press. p. 306. ISBN 9789971694616.
  8. "ရန်ကုန်မြို့တော်ကြီးကို သာယာလှပအောင် ကြိုးစား ဆောင်ရွက်နေသော ရန်ကုန်မြို့တော်ဝန်နှင့် တွေ့ဆုံခြင်း". Newsweek (in Burmese). 23 July 2013. Retrieved 19 July 2015.
  9. Khaing, Htun. "The big high-rise freeze". Frontier Myanmar. Retrieved 2020-06-01.
  10. "Dagon City 'Will Resume', Amid Calls for Planning Overhaul". The Irrawaddy. 2015-02-13. Retrieved 2020-06-01.
  11. "YCDC Shelves Dagon Township Highrise Projects". The Irrawaddy. 2015-02-07. Retrieved 2020-06-01.
  12. "Company Slams Tender Process for New Yangon Business District". The Irrawaddy. 2015-12-10. Retrieved 2020-06-01.
  13. "Heritage Building Demolished to Make Way for US$500-Million High-Rise". The Irrawaddy. 2018-04-06. Retrieved 2020-06-01.
  14. "YCDC Approves Reservoir Safety Plan for Controversial Mega Project". The Irrawaddy. 2018-04-09. Retrieved 2020-06-01.
  15. Lynn, Kyaw Ye. "Tycoon seeks Shwe Mann's help over halted project". Frontier Myanmar. Retrieved 2020-06-01.
  16. "Military Orders Tycoon to Rebuild Yangon Heritage Building". The Irrawaddy. 2018-06-06. Retrieved 2020-06-01.
  17. Lynn, Kyaw Ye. "Military terminates $500 million Chinese-backed Yangon development". Frontier Myanmar. Retrieved 2020-06-01.
  18. "$80M Loan from France Denounced as Unnecessary in Parliament". The Irrawaddy. 2018-11-20. Retrieved 2020-06-01.
  19. "Yangon Mayor Defends 80-Car Budget Binge". The Irrawaddy. 2019-10-08. Retrieved 2020-06-01.
  20. "Bosses of Myanmar's Controversial New Yangon City Project See Major Shakeup". The Irrawaddy. 2019-09-05. Retrieved 2020-06-01.
  21. "Yangon's New City development project initiates 'Swiss challenge'". The Myanmar Times. 2020-01-29. Retrieved 2020-06-01.
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