Singapore has the best infrastructure in the world: Survey

SINGAPORE — The Republic has emerged tops in a ranking of cities with the best infrastructure in this year’s Quality of Living Survey by human resources consultancy Mercer.

The survey ranked cities based on infrastructure for the first time, examining electricity supply, water availability, telephone and mail services, public transportation, traffic congestion and the range of international flights from local airports.

Mr Slagin Parakatil, senior researcher at Mercer, said: “Infrastructure has a significant effect on the quality of living that expatriates experience. While often taken for granted when functioning to a high standard, a city’s infrastructure can generate severe hardship when it is deficient.

“Companies need to provide adequate allowances to compensate their international workers for these and other hardships.”

In a separate ranking, Singapore placed 25th worldwide for quality of living, unchanged from last year, while Vienna retained its top spot on the list, followed by Zurich and Auckland.

Among Asia-Pacific cities, Australian and New Zealand cities ranked highest on the index, followed by Singapore. Tokyo came in at 44th place, while Hong Kong and Seoul were 70th and 75th, respectively.

Globally, the cities with the lowest quality of living are Port-au-Prince, Bangui and Baghdad.

The ranking is conducted every year to help businesses decide how to compensate their employees when they are placed on international assignments. The list covers 221 cities, ranked against New York City as a base city, looking at factors like public transport, housing, climate and schools.