Chinese Cities See Biggest Improvement in Living Standards in Asia, Reports Survey

Chinese Cities See Biggest Improvement in Living Standards in Asia, Reports Survey

March 14, 2007

     -- Shanghai best location in China for expatriates
     -- Chinese and Indian locations show most significant
improvement in 
        living standards

    HONG KONG, March 14 /Xinhua-PRNewswire/ -- Shanghai is
the most favourable location in mainland China for
expatriates, followed by Nanjing, Beijing, Tianjin and
Guangzhou, according to a survey conducted by ECA
International, the world's leading knowledge and solutions
provider for international HR professionals.

    Undertaken annually, ECA International's location
ranking survey compares living standards in 254 locations
globally according to categories including climate, air
quality, health services, housing and utilities, isolation,
social network and leisure facilities, infrastructure,
personal safety and political tensions.  Overall scores are
used by ECA Member companies to establish allowances which
compensate expatriate staff for the difficulties of living
in their assignment location.

    Ranked 76th in the world and 11th in Asia, Shanghai
justifies its position as the best city in mainland China
for foreigners because of the superior infrastructure and
facilities it boasts and its more cosmopolitan make-up. 

    "Shanghai, like Beijing, provides foreigners with
better housing, health services, schools, goods and
services, recreational facilities and transport links than
most other cities in China, which explains its top
spot," comments Lee Quane, General Manager, ECA
International Hong Kong.  "Beijing, however, drops to
3rd place in the China ranking because of high pollution
and a less favourable climate than Shanghai," adds
Quane.  

    While living conditions in Xi'an have improved at the
fastest rate of all Chinese cities surveyed, it remains the
least favourable place in China for foreigners due to the
lack of suitable facilities and its harsh climate. 
Chengdu, Wuhan, Chongqing and Shenyang make up the bottom
five out of the 13 Chinese locations included in the
survey.  Although not in the bottom five, Shenzhen is
perceived to be the least safe city for expatriates. 

    Living standards improving most in China
    Comparing this year's ranking with five years ago,
living standards throughout China have improved
significantly in recent years, reflected by a 28-position
rise up the rankings, on average, across the country --
double the average increase across Asia.  Locations which
have improved the most include Chongqing, Dalian, Wuhan and
Xi'an, which have all moved up the rankings by more than 40
places since 2002. 

    Shanghai remains the most favourable location in
mainland China and has moved up ECA's global ranking from
103 to 76 in the past five years, overtaking Seoul, Bandar
Seri Begawan, Cape Town, Panama City and Santiago amongst
others.  Furthermore, a number of China's second tier
cities have moved ahead of major Asian cities such as
Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and, Manila.  Improvements have
been slowest in locations such as Beijing, Guangzhou,
Shenyang and Tianjin. 

    "Such an overall rise in the global ranking
reflects significant improvement throughout China, with
more cities than ever benefiting from economic development
and investment.  Only India and some Eastern European
locations can match China's improvement in living standards
during this period," comments Quane.  "However,
the rate of improvement is not consistent across all of
China's cities.  Beijing's movement up our rankings has
been hampered by consistently high levels of air pollution.
 Furthermore, although locations such as Xi'an have improved
dramatically in the past five years they still remain in the
lower half of our rankings and require high hardship
allowances to encourage expatriates to accept assignments
there."

    Trends in Asia
    Within Asia, Wuhan and Xi'an have shown the biggest
improvement in living standards, both moving up 46 places
in the rankings.  Outside of mainland China, locations in
India, such as Bangalore, Chennai, Mumbai and New Delhi
have risen by more than 20 places over the past five years,
as have Macau, Phnom Penh, Ulaanbaatar, Vientiane and Tokyo.


    Out of the 48 Asian locations in the survey, only eight
locations have fallen down the rankings between 2002 and
2007, with Port Moresby, Jakarta and Bandar Seri Begawan
deteriorating the most, in terms of living standards
afforded to foreigners.  Hong Kong has fallen from 18th to
23rd during this period. 

    It is not all good news for Asia, however, with a five
year comparison highlighting that some aspects of living
standards, such as air quality, are deteriorating.  Air
pollution in a number of locations, such as Beijing, Hong
Kong, Kuala Lumpur, Port Moresby and Jakarta has worsened
in recent years, which has led to an increase in the
associated health risks.  Such a deterioration reflects
some of the more negative impacts of economic development
in Asia.

    Implications on mobility
    An improvement in living standards in China's first and
second tier cities should encourage mobility to locations
historically considered 'hardship' postings.  As a result,
multinational companies should find it easier to encourage
their internationally mobile employees to undertake
assignments in these locations, while assignment costs may
also be reduced.  

     "With the general improvement in living
conditions in China over the past five years we now
recommend lower 'hardship' allowances in many places,
particularly amongst second-tier cities such as Nanjing,
Wuhan and Xi'an", adds Quane.  "This is making a
number of assignments to China more cost-effective for
companies since 'hardship' allowances, which can be a
costly component of an expatriate's salary package, are
being reduced."

    Global and Asian rankings
    Locations in Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Canada,
Denmark, Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Ireland and
Switzerland join Singapore to make up the top ten
favourable locations for Asian expatriates to live.  The
least favourable place in the world to live is Baghdad,
followed by Kabul and Karachi. 

    Looking at the 48 Asian locations included in the
survey, Macau, Taipei, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur and Georgetown
join Singapore, Kobe, Osaka, Tokyo and Hong Kong to make up
the top 10.  Karachi, Pyongyang, Islamabad, Dhaka and Dili
are the locations in Asia which afford foreigners the worst
quality of living, largely due to the risk to personal
security and lack of suitable expatriate facilities. 

    Locations in Africa tend to be situated in the bottom
half of the rankings.  Cape Town, ranked 95th, is the most
favourable location in Africa for Asians to live, while
locations in Algeria, Angola, Chad, Congo, Democratic
Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Guinea Republic, Niger,
Nigeria and Sudan all fall into the highest 'hardship'
allowance banding and attract the maximum 'hardship'
allowance that ECA advises. 



    The best locations in the world for Asians to live

  
           RANK 06/07            Location                  
                    
              1           Singapore - Singapore            
             
              2           Australia - Sydney               
             
              3           Australia - Melbourne            
             
              4           Japan - Kobe                     
             
              5           Australia - Canberra             
             
             =6           Canada - Vancouver               
             
             =6           Denmark - Copenhagen             
             
              8           New Zealand - Wellington         
             
              9           Netherlands - Amsterdam          
             
            =10           Japan - Osaka                    
             
            =10           Japan - Tokyo                    
             
            =10           Belgium - Brussels               
             
            =10           Germany - Bonn                   
             
            =10           Ireland - Dublin                 
             
            =10           Switzerland - Basel              
             
            =10           Switzerland - Geneva             
             



    Asian locations shows most significant improvement in
living standards
                                                       
    Location                  Asia rank              Global
rank 
                             06/07 (02/03)           06/07
(02/03)
    Singapore - Singapore      1   (1)                 1  
(1)           
    Japan - Kobe               2   (2)                 4  
(10)          
    Japan - Tokyo              3   (5)                 10 
(33)          
    Japan - Osaka              3   (3)                 10 
(16)          
    Hong Kong - Hong Kong      5   (4)                 23 
(18)          
    Macau - Macau              6   (10)                56 
(80)          
    Taiwan - Taipei            7   (8)                 58 
(63)          
    Thailand - Bangkok         8   (9)                 60 
(68)          
    Malaysia - Kuala Lumpur    9   (7)                 63 
(60)          
    Malaysia - Georgetown      10  (12)                74 
(99)          
    China - Shanghai           11  (13)                76 
(103)         
    Brunei - Bandar Seri                                   
             
     Begawan                   12  (6)                 80 
(58)          
    Korea Republic - Seoul     13  (11)                89 
(95)          
    China - Nanjing            14  (17)                91 
(126)         
    China - Beijing            15  (14)                107 
(110)        
    China - Tianjin            16  (17)                108 
(126)        
    China - Guangzhou          17  (15)                116 
(116)        
    China - Xiamen             18  (24)                117 
(154)        
    China - Shenzhen           19  (21)                119 
(147)        
    Vietnam - Hanoi            19  (16)                119 
(122)        
    China - Dalian             21  (28)                124 
(166)        
    Vietnam - Ho Chi Minh City 21  (19)                124 
(129)        
    Indonesia - Denpasar       23  (22)                130 
(148)        
    Philippines - Metro-Manila 24  (20)                132 
(142)        
    China - Chengdu            25  (26)                136 
(163)        
    India - Chennai            26  (31)                138 
(179)        
    Laos - Vientiane           27  (33)                144 
(183)        
    China - Wuhan              28  (35)                147 
(193)        
    Sri Lanka - Colombo        28  (23)                147 
(151)        
    India - Bangalore          30  (31)                150 
(179)        
    China - Chongqing          31  (36)                154 
(196)        
    China - Shenyang           31  (30)                154 
(170)        
    India - Mumbai             33  (33)                158 
(183)        
    China - Xi'an              34  (40)                160 
(206)        
    Mongolia - Ulaanbaatar     35  (37)                162 
(197)        
    Myanmar - Yangon           36  (25)                164 
(159)        
    India - New Delhi          37  (42)                174 
(217)        
    Cambodia - Phnom Penh      37  (39)                174 
(204)        
    Indonesia - Jakarta        39  (27)                190 
(165)        
    Nepal - Kathmandu          40  (40)                196 
(206)        
    India - Kolkata            40  (38)                196 
(201)        
    Papua New Guinea - Port                                
             
     Moresby                   42  (29)                210 
(168)        
    Indonesia - Surabaya       43  (44)                214 
(221)        
    East Timor - Dili          44  (43)                225 
(220)        
    Bangladesh - Dhaka         45  (45)                227 
(230)        
    Pakistan - Islamabad       46  (47)                240 
(240)        
    North Korea - Pyongyang    47  (46)                248 
(236)        
    Pakistan - Karachi         48  (48)                252 
(249)        



    About ECA International
    ECA International is the world's largest membership
organisation for international human resources
professionals, serving a global network of over 4000 HR
professionals in 71 countries. The leading provider of
online data, software solutions and advice for more than
1500 international companies, ECA's innovative approach has
been providing cost-effective solutions to international HR
management since 1971. For more information, please visit
http://www.eca-international.com .

    About ECA's Location Ranking Survey
    The Location Ranking Survey is carried out on an annual
basis. The rankings above and below are made by comparing
the factors listed above for 254 locations worldwide on an
Asian base.

    ECA's Location Ranking Survey is delivered through
ECAAdapt, part of its Assign suite of HR information tools.
ECAAdapt offers a transparent and detailed system for
calculating location or "hardship" allowances for
expatriates relocating to a new country.

    ECAAdapt allows users to select region-to-city
allowances or city-to-city allowances, so that depending on
your policy the system reflects the level of detail that
required. ECA's system provides an immediate
"banding" for the host location, based in part on
the circumstances of the home location. With the banding
comes ECA's recommended allowances, expressed as a
percentage of home gross salary.

    ECAAdapt also gives breakdowns of the scoring given to
a number of different categories contributing to the
overall score which translates to banding and allowances.
Categories include climate, health services, isolation,
social network and leisure facilities, infrastructure and
political tensions.


    For more information, please contact:

    ECA International, Hong Kong              
     Lee Quane
     Tel:   [phone]              
     Email: [e-mail]    
                                                           
             
    ECA International, London                 
     Sam Matthews
     Tel:   [phone]    
     Email: [e-mail] 

    EASTWEST Public Relations  
     Jay Sim
     Tel:   [phone] 
     Email: [e-mail]  
                                                           
             
    EASTWEST Public Relations  
     Nellie Wang
     Tel:   [phone]
     Email: [e-mail]