Hong Kong’s ranking as a desirable place to live for expatriate employees has fallen sharply as a result of worsening air pollution, according to the latest survey of the world’s cities from ECA International, which sells advice to employers on living conditions and hardship allowances.

For Asian expatriates, Hong Kong fell to 32nd place in the 2005-06 rankings from 20th in 2004-05, entirely because of air pollution and rising health risks, including the dangers of bird flu to humans.

Singapore retained the top spot as the best place, followed by the three Australian cities of Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra. Because of the weighting given to "external isolation" – essentially distance from home – the only three European or American cities in the top 10 for Asians were Copenhagen, Vancouver and Basel.

Hong Kong declined less dramatically in the rankings for North American and European expatriates, coming in at 66th place – compared with 60th the previous year – in both categories. For westerners, cities in Canada, Switzerland and northern Europe continue to rank as the best places to live.

Lee Quane, ECA International general manager, said that for Asian employees Hong Kong was falling behind cities such as Oslo, San Francisco and Washington it had previously beaten.

"However, it is still ranked more favourably than mainland Chinese cities," he said. "Although they are improving, mainland cities still have a long way to go."

Kuala Lumpur, the Malaysian capital occasionally blanketed by smoke from Indonesian forest fires, also dropped down in the survey because of air pollution.

The ECA survey is based on assessment of criteria such as crime and climate, not on the opinions of employees or on financial costs.

Hong Kong’s pollution, most of it blown in from the factories, vehicles and power stations of the neighbouring Chinese province of Guangdong, has worsened steadily but its authorities have been slow to respond and been reluctant to confront their counterparts in Guangdong and Beijing. Some western expatriates have moved from Hong Kong to Singapore or returned to their home countries, citing air pollution as one of the factors that persuaded them to leave.

Mr Quane said that for Asian expatriates Hong Kong’s decline this year had pushed the city from the top category, where ECA says no hardship allowance is needed, to Category B, for which companies should consider paying such an allowance.

Air pollution is given 20 out of a total of 330 points in the ranking system (with the highest score being the worst). Hong Kong’s air pollution score is 14, compared with two for Singapore.

For expatriates from all three main regions the worst cities ranked in the survey are Baghdad, Kabul and Karachi in Pakistan.

Source: http://news.ft.com/cms/s/921be3de-c2aa-11da-ac03-0000779e2340,s01=1.html