Dubai: Better health care, more cultural offerings, substantial infrastructure creation and political and economic stability have helped Dubai become the third most improved city for quality of life on the planet within the last five years, says the lead expert of a new global survey.
Jon Copestake, Economist Intelligence Unit Editor of the “Liveability Ranking and Overview Report August 2015” told Gulf News that Dubai’s continued improved life measures over the longer term have been substantial.
Copestake was referring to Dubai’s third-place ranking in a list of 10 most-improved cities in the last five years, according to the survey with Harare, Zimbabwe ranked most-improved followed by Kathmandu, Nepal coming in second place.
“Dubai’s improvement over the last 12 months has been marginal — just 0.5 percentage points — but it has seen a more dramatic rise over the last five years. This is largely a reflection of rising cultural availability. Dubai is attracting more international artists and sporting events reflecting it’s growing status as a destination for regional investment, expatriate workers and retail tourism,” Copestake said.
“This has been augmented by health care gains, in line with Dubai’s aspiration to be a health care tourism destination too and infrastructural improvements which reflect local investment in the governments efforts to augment the city-state’s position as a regional hub. Dubai, and UAE more generally benefited from being perceived as a regional safe haven during the Arab Spring and during the subsequent instability that has taken place across the Middle East and North Africa.”
In the Gulf, Kuwait was ranked two places behind Dubai coming in fifth place as the most-improved city with an overall global ranking of 83rd place.
In contrast, Damascus had the biggest fall in rankings to dead last in the last five years with Kiev, Ukraine placing second worst globally.
The survey stated that “cities moving up the ranking are largely countries that have enjoyed periods of relative stability following falls in liveability” as compared to 57 cities that saw declines in liveability.
Overall, Dubai ranked 75th of a total 140 cities globally polled for the EIU survey.
Melbourne, Australia, took first ranking, Vienna, Austria placed second and Vancouver, Canada was ranked third overall.
Like many other world cities, Copestake said Dubai faces challenges ahead.
“Dubai’s status has certainly grown over the last decade, but this has been led by government borrowing and investment. Dubai’s rising visitor numbers are a positive reflection of this. As the financial crisis of 2009-2010 and more recent fears of a property bubble have shown, the current global economic environment is fragile,” Copestake said.
“The recent stock market declines in China following a decade of strong growth highlights how difficult it is to predict whether an economy is on the right track and falling oil prices have depressed regional economies, all of which could impact on Dubai,” he said.
