KL ranks seventh for most sustainable city to live in Asia Pacific

KUALA LUMPUR: Kuala Lumpur ranks seventh in Asia-Pacific and second in Southeast Asia after Singapore in the inaugural Sustainable Cities Index by Arcadis, an Amsterdam-based global natural and built asset design and consultancy firm.

“Sustainability and development are closely connected. It is important for KL city to transform into one of Asia’s new financial hubs. It will also need to focus on other areas such as people and social welfare,” said Arcadis corporate development director Girish Ramachandran in a statement recently.

“Over the next few decades, KL will face greater stress to improve areas such as health, education and quality of life as well as developments in transport networks, water supply and waste collection systems.”

The index indicated that Kuala Lumpur performs best in terms of low property costs and good work-life balance. However, the city scores lower in terms of inequality and literacy.

According to the index, Kuala Lumpur ranks 26th out of the 50 cities studied. Kuala Lumpur performed slightly better in terms of profit section, scoring 3% less than London and 8% less than Seoul, which is Asia’s leading sustainable city.

Seoul leads in sustainability in Asia Pacific, taking seventh place in the global top 10, followed by Hong Kong (8th) and Singapore (10th) in the recent Arcadis Sustainable Cities Index.

This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on February 13, 2015.