Singapore Comes Out Tops as Most Admired City in Asia Pacific: Microsoft Survey

SINGAPORE, 11 July 2016 – At the Microsoft CityNext Asian Mayors’
dialogue session held at World Cities Summit 2016, Microsoft revealed findings
from a study titled Microsoft CityNext Asia Pacific Survey: Your
City, Your Future, which showed that one in four residents in the Asia
Pacific region named Singapore as their preferred city to live in, outside of
their home country. Key reasons for this preference include: the city’s
cleanliness (44 percent), discipline (22 percent), safety (18 percent), as well
as Singapore being a modern and exciting city (13 percent).

The table below shows the list of most admired
cities, as voted by the 2,000 survey respondents from 13 cities in the region:

However, despite Singapore coming up tops as
the respondents’ favourite city in Asia Pacific, the majority of Singapore’s
residents are not very optimistic about seeing further improvements to their
quality of life over the next decade. 43.5 percent of the Singapore residents
polled expect a decline in the quality of life, contrasting against the views
of a smaller group of residents – 31 percent – who expect improvements in the
quality of life in the next decade. In addition, 25.5 percent of Singapore’s residents
expect the city to maintain its status quo over the next decade. The residents
polled also cited employment opportunities (73 percent), housing (71 percent)
and transportation (70 percent) as the top three areas most in need of
improvement in Singapore.

In view of the areas outlined for improvement,
a large number of Singapore residents agree that technology can play a crucial
role in improving living conditions in Singapore. According to the survey, 85
percent of Singapore residents view technology’s most important role as
creating better connectivity, while 79 percent of residents see technology as a
means to generating greater economic opportunities such as creating employment
or starting a technology startup. Other key roles for technology cited include
improving information dissemination to residents about government services (78
percent), improving citizen engagement through better communication with
government (76 percent), and Big Data analytics (65 percent) which can
facilitate city development and planning.

Jessica Tan, Managing Director of Microsoft
Singapore said: “As Singapore accelerates towards realising its Smart Nation
vision, technology will play an even more important role in cementing
Singapore’s position as the most admired nation in Asia Pacific. Our ability to
nurture a vibrant public-private ecosystem that harnesses the power of
technology to co-create innovative and citizen-centric urban solutions that
will improve residents’ quality of living will be key in ensuring the continued
success of the nation. The future of Singapore is a “future of us”, one that
the government, businesses and residents have a stake in to collectively
achieve inclusive growth.”

The Microsoft CityNext Asia Pacific
Survey: Your City, Your Future was conducted with over 2,000 residents
across 13 cities in Asia Pacific including Bangkok, Beijing, Delhi, Jakarta,
Manila, Mumbai, Shanghai, Seoul, Singapore, Sydney, Taipei and Tokyo and Osaka.

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Microsoft CityNext is a partner-led initiative
that empowers cities to be more sustainable, prosperous, and economically
competitive—with a simplified approach. It helps cities unlock their potential
by delivering innovative digital services that can help citizens lead safer,
healthier, and more educated lives.

More information about CityNext is available
at http://www.microsoft.com/citynext/.