S’PORE SLIDES IN
RANKING AS ONE OF WORLD'S MOST LIVEABLE CITIES
Nov 27, 2015
Singapore was ranked seventh in the Global Liveable Cities
Index, collated by the Asia Competitiveness Institute (ACI) at the National
University of Singapore’s (NUS) Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, reported
Channel NewsAsia.
A ranking of the most liveable cities in the world, the
index determines liveability in five aspects — environmental friendliness and
sustainability, economic vibrancy and competitiveness, domestic security and
stability, political governance, and socio-cultural conditions. Switzerland’s
Geneva and Zurich took the top spots in the list of 64 cities.
Singapore’s position is a drop from its number three ranking
in 2012, due to a relatively weak showing in indicators like social equity and
environmental sustainability. It performed strongly in domestic security and
stability, economic vibrancy and competitiveness, and political governance. It
was second in Asia, after Hong Kong, which was listed sixth overall.
The city-state beat Hong Kong in areas like political
governance and domestic security and stability, but lagged in areas such as
environmental friendliness and sustainability, as well as economic vibrancy and
competitiveness.
“Our conditions from 2011 to 2013 were worsening, including
income disparity. But since 2013, the government has come in to do a lot of
public policy remedies, whether it’s solving public housing shortage, or higher
prices in the property sector, and also opening up infrastructure bottlenecks,”
shared Associate Professor Tan Khee Giap, co-director of ACI.
“But this kind of improvement probably will be reflected in
our next update, because we don’t do this every year. So unfortunately,
rankings because of data constraints have some lagging effect. That’s why our
liveability index has deteriorated from three to seven.
“But that reflects the situation of Singapore between 2011
and 2013. I’m confident as we move forward, when we update again, Singapore’s
liveability will improve again.”
Info courtesy - Propertyguru
