KL, JB among most livable cities in S.E. Asia

KUALA LUMPUR: Mercer ’s 19th annual Quality of Living ranking for this year names Kuala Lumpur and Johor Baru among the top three best livable cities in Southeast Asia.

Kuala Lumpur was ranked second, while Johor Baru was the third best city in the region in the global survey.

The survey, which was released on Tuesday, saw Kuala Lumpur ranked 86th globally, just behind Taipei, which was ranked 85th, in the overall best quality of living category involving 231 cities.

This time, two categories were listed in the survey — the best city infrastructure and the best quality of living. For the first time, Singapore ranked first in the best city infrastructure category.

Although the top 10 cities with the highest quality of living for expatriates were mostly dominated by European cities, Singapore took the top spot in the category, followed by Frankfurt and Munich in second and third places respectively..

For the infrastructure ranking, cities in Southeast Asia were judged based on several criteria related to quality of living, such as reliable electricity, drinking water, public transportation access, mail service, communication, airport connectivity and traffic congestion.

In last place was Port au Prince. For the overall category, Vienna took first place for overall quality of living for the eighth consecutive year. The top 10 were mostly European cities, such as Zurich in second place and Munich in fourth.

Multinational companies use the survey to design expatriate packages.

The survey looked at 10 areas, including political and social environment, economic environment, natural environment, housing, health services and education.

Basel, a newcomer to the list, ranked 10th. The only non-European cities in the top 10 were Auckland in the third spot and Vancouver in fifth.

While the highest ranking cities in Asia and Latin America were Singapore in the 25th spot and Montevideo in 79th respectively.

Malaysia fell a little behind, with Kuala Lumpur occupying the 86th place and Johor Baru 103rd place.

Other cities in the Quality of Living survey include Bangkok, which ranked fourth in the region and 131st globally; Manila ranked fifth in Southeast Asia and 135 globally; and, Jakarta ranked sixth in the region and 143rd globally.