Jakarta Tanks in International Livability Survey

Jakarta Globe

Pollution, poor health facilities and security concerns ensured Indonesian capital Jakarta scored terribly in an international survey of the best — and worst — cities to live in.

The survey, commissioned by business consulting firm ECA International, ranked Jakarta 195th in the global survey of Asian expatriates and 38th within Asia, behind Cambodian capital Phnom Penh and Mongolian capital Ulan Bator.

Western expatriates thought even less of Jakarta, placing it in 229th position globally.

Josephine Woolley, a spokeswoman with ECA International, said Jakarta ranked worse than other Asian and non-Asian cities in a number of key areas.

“Areas that particularly bring it down are the following: Air quality is on a similar level as Hong Kong — that is some of the worst levels in Asia and globally,” Woolley told the Jakarta Globe.

“The availability of health facilities of a standard that expatriates would expect to see is among the poorest. Personal security is a big issue for the city; so too are socio-political tensions — Jakarta is among the region’s worse scorers for these factors.”

She said Jakarta was only saved from a poorer ranking by the availability of goods and services, access to international media, “and the city is a good transport hub making it easily accessible from other countries.”

“The availability of expatriate standard housing is good and so are the schooling options for employees on assignment with their family. Better scores in these areas mean the city has not finished further down the ranking.”

Woolley said other factors were taken into account in Jakarta’s ranking of 229th for Western expatriates, including distance to travel and “greater cultural adjustment to make.”

Surabaya, the capital of East Java, ranked even worse than Jakarta, coming in at 41 in the Asia list, though Denpasar, the capital of Bali, ranked 26th on the list, in 152th position globally.

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