| Azlan Othman |
ABODE of Peace Brunei continues to gain more feathers to add to its cap with the latest being an Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) report giving a clean certificate to the air quality of the Sultanate.
Brunei has a pollution level which is well below the World Health Organization’s (WHO) ceiling for acceptable outdoor air quality compared to other countries in the region where urban pollution levels are very high, partly due to the high level of car ownership in the region’s major cities, EIU said in its report on Asean cities titled ‘Stirring the Melting Pot’, released this week.
The report came just a week after a similar finding by the WHO which stated that Brunei Darussalam has some of the cleanest and safest air on the planet and is among the countries with the lowest number of deaths from air pollution – with zero deaths per 100,000 people.
This report analysed data from more than 100 nations, comparing exposure to ambient air pollution and related death and illness. It showed the Sultanate among the top 10 nations with the best results for concentrations of PM2.5 – a key measure of air pollution – along with rates of deaths, disease and illness that could be attributed to pollution.
The EIU report further noted that 77 per cent of Brunei’s population lives in urban areas.
For the first time in history, cities are now home to over 50 per cent of the global population, and this is expected to surpass 60 per cent by 2030 and 66 per cent by 2050. Some of the highest urbanisation rates in the coming decades will continue to be experienced in countries in Southeast Asia, primarily because the region starts off from a lower urbanisation base.
Nearly half of Asean citizens live in urban areas, but this average covers a wide range, from 100 per cent in Singapore to just 21 per cent in Cambodia.
The 10 states forming the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) represent a powerful economic bloc. With a combined gross domestic product (GDP) of US$2.4 trillion, Asean is the sixth largest economy in the world.
The EIU expects growth in the region, already the world’s sixth largest economic bloc, to average 4.6 per cent annually in the next five years. Much of this growth will come from Asean’s urban hubs.
According to EIU, Brunei is the second wealthiest nation in terms of GDP per capita, which is about 30 times higher than that of its poorest member.
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