PENANG: George Town has moved up a notch to rank as the 9th most liveable city in Asia for Asians to live in for the year 2007/2008 in a survey of 254 cities worldwide. The ECA International Location Ranking Survey had last year ranked the Penang capital as the 10th most liveable city in Asia for Asians.

George Town also saw the biggest improvement in scores among the 49 Asians cities surveyed by rising 11 notches in the global ranking from 74 to 63.

ECA International general manager Lee Quane said in a press release that the big rise was due to improvements in recreation, housing and personal security.

Globally, Singapore maintained the top spot as the best place for Asians to live in according to the annual survey which compares living standards according to categories, including climate, air quality, health services, housing and utilities, isolation, social network and leisure facilities, infrastructure, personal safety and political tensions.

Kuala Lumpur is tied with George Town at the 9th most liveable city in Asia and the 63rd most liveable city in the world.

Three Japanese cities made it to the top 10 in the Asian ranking. They are Kobe (2nd), Yokohama (3rd) and Tokyo (4th). Kobe and Yokohama were also among the top 10 in global ranking at 3rd and 8th spots respectively.

The other cities which made it to the top 10 in the Asian ranking were Hong Kong which was tied with Tokyo at 4th spot, Taipei (6th), Macau (7th) and Bangkok (8th).

Three Australian cities made it to the top 10 in global ranking. They are Sydney at second spot, Melbourne which was tied with Kobe at 3rd spot, and Canberra at 6th spot. The other cities in the top 10 in the global ranking were Copenhagen at 5th spot, Vancouver (7th), Wellington (8th) and Dublin (10th).

The least liveable cities were Baghdad at the last spot, Kabul (253rd) and Karachi (252nd).

ECA International is a membership organisation for international human resources professionals. It serves a global network of over 4,000 human resource professionals in 71 countries.

source: theStar