| Azlan Othman |
BANDAR Seri Begawan (BSB) has been ranked in the Economist Intelligence Unit’s (EIU) 2018 ranking of the world’s most liveable cities.
The Sultanate’s capital ranked 101st in 2016 and 2015 and was in 100th place last year.
According to the annual survey which identifies the best cities to live and work in, BSB’s ‘Bandar ku Ceria’ initiative has made the city centre a location for recreational activities every Sunday morning and helped turn it into a vibrant city, creating an image that BSB is a friendly and liveable city and capable of attracting more visitors.
The survey report highlighted the importance of keeping the city clean, saying that it is the best way to raise its status. Everyone, including owners of commercial premises, shops and business stalls, has a responsibility to ensure cleanliness in their areas, the report noted.
In the EIU ranking, Austria’s capital Vienna has beaten Melbourne to be ranked first, ending the southern Australian city’s seven-year reign.
In the Southeast Asia region, Singapore ranked 37th, followed by Kuala Lumpur in the 78th place while Bangkok came in as the world’s 98th most desirable domicile, ahead of Manila (103), Hanoi (107), Ho Chi Minh City (116), Jakarta (119) and Phnom Penh (125).
Each year 140 cities are given scores out of 100 on a range of factors such as living standards, crime, transport infrastructure, access to education and healthcare, as well as political and economic stability.
Vienna scored a near-ideal 99.1, beating Melbourne into second place with a score of 98.4. Japan’s Osaka took third place. “Those that score best tend to be mid-sized cities in wealthier countries,” researchers said in their report.
They noted that several cities in the top 10 had relatively low population densities which fostered “a range of recreational activities without leading to high crime levels or overburdened infrastructure”.
Researchers said wealthy financial capitals such as Paris (19), London (48) and New York (57) tended to be “victims of their own success” with higher crime rates and overstretched infrastructure dampening their appeal.
EIU’s liveability rating, part of the Worldwide Cost of Living Survey, assigns scores to 140 cities based on stability, healthcare, culture and environment, education and infrastructure.
“While in the past couple of years cities in Europe were affected by the spreading perceived threat of terrorism in the region, which caused heightened security measures, the past year has seen a return to normalcy,” the EIU said in a statement about the report.
“A long-running contender to the title, Vienna has succeeded in displacing Melbourne from the top spot due to increases in the Austrian capital’s stability category ratings,” it said, referring to one of the index’s five headline components.
Vienna and Melbourne scored maximum points in the healthcare, education and infrastructure categories. While Melbourne extended its lead in the culture and environment component, that was outweighed by Vienna’s improved stability ranking.
“Vienna’s many green spaces include lakes with popular beaches and vineyards with sweeping views of the capital. Public transport is cheap and efficient. In addition to the generally improved security outlook for western Europe, Vienna benefited from its low crime rate,” the survey’s editor Roxana Slavcheva said.
“One of the sub-categories that Vienna does really well in is the prevalence of petty crime, It’s proven to be one of the safest cities in Europe,” she added.