Malaysia has always been known as a favourite destination among travellers and expatriates alike, what with our lower cost of living in the context of certain foreign currencies and lack of a language barrier.
What’s more, there’s no denying the inherent appeal in our natural treasures such as beaches and rainforests, alongside our renowned food scene.
Global livability ranking in Malaysia rises with eased pandemic restrictions
It would appear that this reputation may further bolstered as British data and consultation company ECA International has revealed that Malaysia’s global livability rate has increased for East Asian expatriates.
Out of the 500 cities that were assessed worldwide, 3 cities in Malaysia were named in the list, which includes Kuala Lumpur, Georgetown, and Johor Bahru. In the case of our capital city, Kuala Lumpur’s livability rate has increased by 2 spots, jumping from 120 to 118 while Georgetown and Johor Bahru has increased by one spot each, sitting at 122 and 125 respectively.
According to the regional director of ECA International Lee Quane, one of the largest factors that has helped Malaysia increase its global livability rank is because of the relaxation of pandemic restrictions locally.
“By reopening its economy and adopting the policy of living with the Covid-19 virus sooner than other locations, living conditions are slowly returning to the pre-pandemic level.
This makes Malaysia much more attractive as compared to other regions like China for example, who opened up their borders much later.”
But how are the rankings obtained? Well ECA International, who offers companies data, technology and training to manage international employee renumeration and compensations, explains that each location is ranked based on several factors which includes climate, health service availability, natural phenomena, isolation, networking and leisure facilities, personal safety, infrastructure, accessibility, air quality, and political tension. All of these will then contribute to a city’s final ranking score.
Across the ASEAN region, our Causeway neighbours Singapore managed to secure its spot as the highest-ranking ASEAN country. On the other hand, many major cities in the ASEAN region were seen to have risen in ranks except for Yangon in Myanmar, which has fallen due to the continuous deterioration of their security circumstances.
Nonetheless, it’s great to see that Malaysia is recovering from the pandemic and welcoming more expats in a hopeful sign of further recovery ahead.
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