Singapore - Asian expatriates have voted Singapore as the top city to live in for the tenth year running, but a gulf in the quality of living among Asian cities remains.
According to the latest ECA International's Location Ratings Survey on expatriate living conditions, Singapore has topped the quality of life ranking for Asian assignees. That is despite the city's high cost of living. Lee Quane, regional director for ECA International Asia, attributes the overwhelming Asian expatriates' votes to Singapore's "good infrastructure and healthcare facilities, low crime and health risks, and decent air quality".
Sydney was ranked second and Kobe was third while Hong Kong, which is usually Singapore's nearest competitor in terms of economy and quality living, was placed at a distant 11th on the global charts. Its lower ranking, as compared to other Asian cities in the top 10, was a result of its position as one of the worst locations worldwide for air quality.
Other major cities in China are also playing catch up on the global rankings with Beijing moving up 13 places to 99 as a result of its improved infrastructure and facilities from last year's Olympics. Even so, pollution remains a problem as the Chinese capital scored the worst in the air quality survey. Shanghai is ranked 75th and Nanjing, 96th. Taipei (56), Kuala Lumpur (61) and Bangkok (63) are some other Asian cities still ranked inside the top 100.
Quane believes these rankings reveal a large gulf in the quality of living among Asian locations, which would warrant high location allowances as "majority of locations will be challenging in some shape or form".
This means companies that want to cut costs by reducing location allowances when assigning expatriates to cities with good quality living might have to reconsider as Quane thinks it could be counterproductive. Problems such as location adjustments and family concerns would still exist even if the assignee is going to "a location where the quality of living may not be too dissimilar from their home location", says Quane.
