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European cities offer the best quality of life for ex- patriate staff, according to a study of more than 200 locations.
The survey by Mercer, the international consultants, ranked the cities on the basis of personal safety, health and education facilities, transport, other public services, and social, economic, environmental and political factors.
The most attractive location for expatriate businesspeople was Zurich. The Swiss commercial centre, home of UBS, Swiss Re and Zurich financial services, scored 108 points under a ranking system that uses New York on 100 points as a base.
The US business centre, by comparison, was in 49th place, behind other US cities: Honolulu (28th), San Francisco (29th), Boston (37th) and Chicago and Washington DC (equal 44th).
Personal safety was the most important issue when locating expatriate staff, said Mercer. The fact that there were three Swiss cities – Zurich, Geneva and Bern – in the top 10 locations emphasised the county's reputation as one of the safest places in the world, it said.
Three German cities Düsseldorf, Munich and Frankfurt also made it into the 10 best locations while Vienna, the Austrian capital, was equal second with Geneva. Vancouver, Auckland and Sydney were the only non-European cities in the top 10.
Baghdad was in bottom place with just 13.5 points, ahead of Bangui, capital of the Central African Republic, with 29.3 points and Brazzaville, the Republic of Congo capital, with 29.5 points.
A separate survey based just on personal safety, ranked on internal stability, crime, effectiveness of law enforcement and relationships with other countries, put Luxembourg in first place with Bern, Geneva, Helsinki and Zurich, ranked equal second. Baghdad, Kinshasa, Karachi and Nairobi were least safe.
Canadian cities dominated the overall rankings in the Americas with Vancouver (fourth), Toronto (15th), Ottawa (19th) and Montreal (22nd) ahead of all US locations.
Glasgow (43rd) and Birmingham (53rd) were the top ranked UK cities, ahead of London (69th).
Auckland (fifth) boasted the best quality of life in Asia Pacific followed by Sydney (10th) and Wellington (12th). Singapore (32nd) was ranked ahead of Tokyo (35th), Hong Kong (70th) and Beijing (142nd). Bangalore (140th) was the highest ranked Indian city.
Kuala Lumpur (75th) was ahead of Taipei (84th), Seoul (86th), Bangkok (109th) and Jakarta (146th) while Dhaka, the city with the region's worst quality of living, scored 38.9. Pakistan was one of the lowest scorers for personal safety, with Karachi and Islamabad ranked 213th and 203rd respectively.
一项针对逾200个地点进行的调查显示，欧洲城市为派遣海外的员工提供了最佳生活质量。
国际咨询公司美世(Mercer)进行的此项调查，以人身安全、医疗及教育设施、交通、其它公共服务以及社会、经济、环境和政治等因素为基础，对一些城市进行了排名。
对于外派商业人士而言，最具吸引力的地点是苏黎世。该城市在以纽约的100点为基点的排名体系中得分为108点。苏黎世是瑞士的商业中心，同时还是瑞银(UBS)、瑞士再保险(Swiss Re)以及苏黎世金融服务集团(Zurich Financial Services)的所在地。
相比之下，美国的商业中心（纽约）排名第49位，落后于美国其它城市：檀香山（28位）、旧金山（29位）、波士顿（37位）、芝加哥和华盛顿（并列44位）。
美世表示，在安置外派员工时，人身安全是最重要的问题。该公司表示，苏黎世、日内瓦、伯尔尼三个瑞士城市均排名前10位，这突显出瑞士作为全球最安全地区之一的声誉。
三个德国城市，杜塞尔多夫、慕尼黑以及法兰克福也跻身前10位，而奥地利首都维也纳则与日内瓦并列第二。在前10名中，温哥华、奥克兰和悉尼是仅有的几个非欧洲城市。
巴格达以13.5点位列最后，中非共和国首都班吉和刚果共和国首都布拉柴维尔分别以29.3点和29.5点位列倒数第三名和第四名。
另外一个仅仅基于人身安全的调查，以内部稳定、犯罪率、执法的效力以及与其它国家的关系对城市进行了排名：卢森堡位居第一；伯尔尼、日内瓦、赫尔辛基和苏黎世并列第二；而巴格达、金沙萨、卡拉奇和内罗毕最不安全。
加拿大城市在美洲国家中的总体排名占优，该国温哥华（第4）、多伦多（第15）、渥太华（第19）和蒙特利尔（第22）的排名均领先于所有美国城市。
格拉斯哥（第43）和伯明翰（第53）是排名最靠前的英国城市，而伦敦派在第69位。
奥克兰（第5）是亚太地区生活质量最好的地方，紧随其后的是悉尼（第10）和威灵顿（第12）；新加坡（第32）的排名领先于东京（第35）、香港（第70）和北京（第142）。班加罗尔（第140）是排名最靠前的印度城市。
吉隆坡（第75）排名位于台北（第84）、首尔（第86）、曼谷（第109）和雅加达（第146）之前。而亚太地区生活质量最差的达卡得分38.9。巴基斯坦是人身安全方面得分最低的地方之一，卡拉奇和伊斯兰堡分别位列第213位和第203位。
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