Port Harcourt, the capital city of Rivers State, which prides itself as Nigeria’s garden city, has ranked low among cities that have the best infrastructure, a new report by the United States-based Mercer Consulting for 2009 has revealed.
According to the report released on Tuesday, the Nigerian city with a composite score of 30.5, ranked 214th coming ahead of only war torn Baghdad (19.6), the Iraqi capital, which occupied 215th in a contest which featured 215 cities drawn from all the continents.
The report says, “In the city infrastructure index, most of the region’s cities (in Middle East and Africa) rank below 100. The exceptions are Dubai in the United Arab Emirates (35), Tel Aviv (55) Jerusalem (70), (both in Israel) Abu Dhabi (United Arab Emirates) (72), Port Louis in Mauritius (92) and Cairo in Egypt (93). Baghdad (215) is again at the bottom of the list with a city infrastructure score of 19.6, while Port Harcourt in Nigeria is at 214, scoring 30.5.”
Cities were ranked based on electricity supply; water availability; telephone and mail services; public transport provision; traffic congestion and the range of international flights from local airports.
Leading the pack in terms of infrastructure in the world is Singapore with a score of 109.1 followed by Munich (Germany); in second place and Copenhagen (Denmark) took the third slot. Japanese cities of Tsukuba and Yokohama filled the fourth and fifth slots respectively, while German city of Dusseldof and Vancouver in Canada occupied joint sixth.
Mercer consulting says, “German city infrastructure is amongst the best in the world, in part due to its first class airport facilities and connections to other international destinations.
London’s ranking in the infrastructure index reflects the high level of public services offered, with its extensive public transport network and wide variety of telecommunication services.”
For city infrastructure, Mercer says Singapore stands out because the city has an airport with excellent facilities and connections, as well as an efficient and extensive public transport network.
The report also considered cities in terms of quality of living. According to the report released on Tuesday, the best city where most people will consider as their home is now the Austrian capital, Vienna. The city took over from Zurich, Switzerland‘s largest city and financial capital, which now occupy the second slot. Apart from Zurich, three other Swiss cities also make it among the best 10 cities. Mercer attributes Vienna‘s top most performance to significant improvement in Austria’s political and social environment.
Geneva retains its third position, while Vancouver (Canada) and Auckland (New Zealand) are joint fourth in the rankings of best cities in the world. “Overall, European cities continue to dominate the top locations in this year‘s survey, with German cities particularly well represented among the top 50. Düsseldorf, Munich and Frankfurt are all among the top 10 best cities,” the report says.
French and British cities find themselves among the top 50, while no African country falls into this category. Paris (France) drops from its 32nd position in 2008 to 33rd place in the year under review, while London (UK) retains its 38th position. Birmingham and Glasgow (both UK) are joint 56th.
“In the US, the highest-ranking entry is Honolulu at position 29. Singapore (26) is the top-scoring Asian city followed by Tokyo at 35. Baghdad, ranking 215, remains at the bottom of the table,” the report says.
The rankings are based on a point-scoring index, which sees Vienna scoring 10.6, while Baghdad scores 14.4 to occupy the last position in the quality of living survey. To arrive at scores, Mercer says cities are ranked against New York as the base city with an index score of 100.
Initially, 420 cities were evaluated but 215 were eventually considered of worthy of assessment. The US-based group says the report was done to help governments and major companies place employees on international assignments.
Data were largely collected between September and November 2008 and is regularly updated to accommodate changes that may arise among cities that were surveyed.
In Central and South America, San Juan in Puerto Rico retains the highest ranking at 72, followed by Montevideo at 79. Port au Prince in Haiti remains among the lowest and has gone done four places in the overall ranking as a result of food shortages it experienced in 2008 and the subsequent riots.
Many Eastern European cities have seen improvement in quality of living. Analysts say a number of countries, which joined the European Union back in 2004, are better for it. They now experience increased stability, rising living standards and greater and greater availability of consumer goods. “Ljubljana in Slovenia, for example, moves up four places to reach 78 while Bratislava moves up three places to 88. Zagreb moves three places to 103,” the report says.
Dubai (77) in the United Arab Emirates and Port Louis in Mauritius (82) are the best with quality of living in the Middle East. According to Mercer, “Dubai’s transport facilities have witnessed improvements, with the development of its road infrastructure and expansion of its international airport and the city is up six places in the ranking.”
The xenophobic attacks in major cities in South Africa also have a drastic effect on the former apartheid enclave in the latest raking. “Cape Town in South Africa, previously the city in the region with the best quality of living, has dropped substantially in this year‘s ratings (from 80 to 87 in 2009),” it says.
As for cities in the Asia-Pacific, most of them retain their previous positions. For instance, Auckland retains its 4th position on quality of living index in the region. Sydney is next with its 10th position, while Wellington in New Zealand stands at 12th. Singapore, which has the best infrastructure among the 215 cities ranks 26th on quality of living index. This makes it to be the highest gainer in the region. It moves six steps up from its position in 2008.
Explaining why Singapore improved, the report states the city has gained importance as a financial centre and offers a wide range of international and private schools to cater to its expatriate community.
“Beijing (China) has also moved three places in the ranking, up from 116 to 113, mainly due to improvements in public transport facilities from the 2008 Olympic Games.”