Singapore is world's second safest city: Report

Singapore comes in second to Tokyo as the safest city in the world, losing by three points in the digital security category, reported The Economist in its Safe Cities Index.

Osaka follows after in the third spot, beating Stockholm at number four and Amsterdam coming up fifth.

The Safe Cities Index measures digital, health, infrastructure and personal securities of 50 selected cities. These cities were selected based on regional representation and availability of data.

According to The Economist, safety is closely linked to wealth and economic development. It highlighted the striking example in the Asia region where rich Asian cities like Tokyo, Singapore and Osaka took the top three spots while poorer neighbours like Ho Chi Minh City and Jakarta were relegated to the bottom.

Although overall second, Singapore slipped from second place to the 12th spot for the health security category due to the prevalent problem of the hospital bed crunch.

The Republic took the seventh spot at 88.86 over 100 for infrastructure safety while Zurich ranked first with a score of 92.69. According to The Economist, the government plans to install 1,000 sensors across the city this year to monitor conditions like water levels, traffic congestion, crowds and air quality.

Singapore took the top spot for the personal safety category with a score of 90.42 while Tokyo dropped to third spot with 89.31.

The report described Singapore as a wealthy city-state with decade-long low figures of traditional crimes like burglary and theft. However, cyber-related offences like e-mail scams contribute to the overall spike in reported crime.

This is a call for concern as Singapore is set to harness technology and data intelligence in a gradual shift to become a smart nation.

Where Singapore falls short with a digital security score of 83.85, Tokyo emerges top with 87.18.

The report revealed that Tokyo is highly invested in digital security with its dedicated cyber security teams, privacy policies and citizen awareness.

Japan's capital city is most certainly pulling out all the stops in its bid to "shape up for the 2020 Olympics".

Taking top priority on its to-do list is improving its natural disaster management for the earthquake-prone city as well as ramping up air quality by reducing traffic congestion.

debwong@sph.com.sg