Asia Pacific -  The quality of life has improved across most major Asian cities, with Singapore moving up six notches to its current 26th position, according to the latest Mercer 2009 Quality of Living Survey.

Other cities in the Asia Pacific have also shown a slight increase in rankings.  Tokyo ranks at 35, while Beijing moves up three places to 113 due to the improved transport system following the Olympic games last August. Kuala Lumpur and Manila remain at 75 and 131 respectively, while Jakarta climbs up six spots to 140.

However, Bangkok and Mumbai dropped in the rankings from 109 to 120 and 142 to 148 respectively, due to a decline in stability and security. Dhaka in Bangladesh holds the lowest ranking in the region at 205.

Singapore is at the top of the index for the best infrastructure, with Japanese cities Tsukuba at four and Yokohama at five respectively. The other high rankers in the region include Hong Kong (8), Sydney (11) and Tokyo (12), while Dhaka ranks the lowest at 197.

"Infrastructure has a significant effect on the quality of living experienced by expatriates. Whilst often taken for granted when functioning to a high standard, a city's infrastructure can generate severe hardship when it is lacking," says Cathy Loose, Asia Pacific global mobility leader with Mercer's information product solutions.

She feels companies need to provide adequate allowances to compensate their  international workers.

"As a region, Asia Pacific is highly diverse. Recent political unrest and terrorist attacks in some cities in the region have negatively impacted the quality of living there. In addition to providing an appropriate hardship allowance, companies need to make sure they review their expatriate strategies by implementing specific safety measures such as ensuring their expatriates' accommodation is under surveillance and providing effective channels of communication should evacuation be necessary," Loose says.