Singapore still top city to live in.

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Posted by: Tang Wen Xiang (103016C)
6th Post: Singapore still top city to live in.

S'pore still top city to live in
By Robin Chan

Preliminary findings from the Global Liveable Cities Index put the city state third behind Swiss cities Geneva and Zurich, and top for Asia, ahead of Hong Kong in eighth position. -- ST PHOTO: ALPHONSUS CHERN

SINGAPORE remains one of the world's most attractive cities to live in, according to a newly-developed index.

Preliminary findings from the Global Liveable Cities Index put the city state third behind Swiss cities Geneva and Zurich, and top for Asia, ahead of Hong Kong in eighth position.

While it came in tops in areas like good governance and safety, it only ranked 14th out of 64 countries when it came to environmental friendliness and sustainability.

The index, commissioned by the Centre for Liveable Cities and designed by a team at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy and academics in Switzerland, is claimed to be one of the most comprehensive and balanced indicators of liveability yet devised.

It competes head on with a range of existing quality benchmarks, including Mercer's Quality of Living Survey, British publication Monocle's most liveable city index, and the Economist Intelligence Unit's Liveability Ranking.

'Each of these has their own purpose, but in terms of looking at liveability from a holistic, and... balanced framework, I think there are probably very few, if any, such sets of indicators around,' said Mr Andrew Tan, director of the Centre for Liveable Cities which commissioned the study.

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Singapore officially gained sovereignty on 9 August 1965. At 2010, Singapore has changed from an island to one of the world’s most attractive cities to live in. The Global Liveable Cities Index put Singapore third behind Swiss cities Geneva and Zurich. In addition, Singapore is top in the index in areas like good governance and safety but only 14th out of 64 countries in term of environmental friendliness and sustainability. There were the five criteria used in the index, which was commissioned by the Centre for Liveable Cities and designed by a team at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy and academics in Switzerland.

However, there are doubts in term of comprehensiveness in the index, but Mr Andrew Tan, director of the Centre for the liveable Cities rebutted that the five criteria are five key areas that every city should provide for their citizens. Furthermore, the index’s authors claimed it is one of the most comprehensive and balanced indicator of liveability yet devised as it competes head on with a range of existing quality benchmarks, including Mercer’s Quality of Living Survey, British publication Monocle’s most liveable city index, and the Economist Intelligence Unit’s Liveable Ranking.

In my opinion, I am not bothered about the accuracy of the index. Instead, I am worried about Singapore’s weaker performance in the area of environmental protection. Singapore’s land is covered with 99% urban areas, thus the ability to trap rain water is questioned. During the past two weeks, there are 2 major flooding at Orchard Road in Singapore. Although PM Lee has explained that it is because of the blockage of the drains, PM Lee had also admitted that no one should expect Singapore to be flood-free, as Singapore does not have the large area of land to store water. Thus, Singaporean should play our part by not littering, so that litters will not flow into the drains to block the flow of rainwater.

A clean city is a strong reflection of our moral and civic vales!