Abu Dhabi wins ‘Best Arab City’ Award

Abu Dhabi wins ‘Best Arab City’ Award

Saneou Al Hadath, an Arabic-language business magazine, has named the UAE capital as the region’s best city to live in.

March 17, 2009 2:06 by Dana El Baltaji

Abu Dhabi is the ‘Best Arab City’ to live in for the second year in a row, according to Saneou Al Hadath, one of the region’s leading Arabic-language business magazines. The magazine’s annual ‘Best Arab City’ report, published in its March edition, bases its analysis on numerous international studies and indicators. The survey ranks 19 cities throughout the Middle East in six categories: business; health; security and human rights; communication and transportation; entertainment and culture; and education.

According to the study, Dubai is the second best Arab city to live in.

“The indicators for the study are based on the quality of life, the health care services, the business communities in the each of the 19 cities,” explains Yazan Neme, a journalist at Saneou Al Hadath. “The GCC’s cities outperformed other cities, due to their rapid development and the property boom in the region.”

Consequently, the Gulf’s capitals made the survey’s top 10 list; the top five are Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Manama, Doha and Kuwait City. Lagging behind are Riyadh in ninth place and Jeddah in eleventh.

The highest ranked cities in the Levant and North Africa are Amman (sixth) and Beirut (tenth), and Tunis (sixth) and Casablanca (fourteenth) respectively.

Winners in the individual categories are: Dubai for culture and entertainment; Abu Dhabi and Dubai for communication and transportation; Tunis for security and human rights; Abu Dhabi for health; Kuwait City for business; and Doha and Amman for education.

“Given that the indicators we used are based on numbers published in 2008, well before corporations in the region publicized their fourth quarter losses, we’re keen on seeing which of the 19 cities will sink or swim in 2009,” Neme added.