Manama ranked as the fourth best city and topped the ladder in terms of the economic conditions in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, according to the findings of a survey.
The “Best Cities of the Middle East and North Africa 2010” report conducted by the Middle East’s number one job site Bayt.com in conjunction with research specialists YouGov Siraj, surveyed the top cities in the MENA according to economic factors, labor rights, environmental factors, everyday life factors and socio-cultural factors. Overall, taking all factors into account, the 10 best cities were ranked in the following descending order: Abu Dhabi, Muscat, Dubai, Manama, Tunis, Sharjah, Doha, Kuwait City, Marrakech and Amman.
The economic factors section consisted of five key elements that could be related to a given individual’s life in a city. Each of these elements plays a crucial role either directly or indirectly in shaping the overall quality of life. The determining factors used for this section of the study were taken as follows (ranked here by order of “extreme” importance to respondents): availability of jobs (at 85% of total votes), reasonably priced day to day amenities (at 83% of votes), availability of affordable housing (at 80% of votes), competitive salaries (at 74% of votes) and benefits for working parents (at 60% of votes).
The cities that scored “extremely” well in economic factors were ranked in the following order starting from the highest to the lowest; Manama, Doha, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Riyadh, Sharjah, Kuwait City, Tunis and Jeddah. In Manama, 29% of respondents felt the availability of jobs was good to excellent, 39% felt the availability of competitive salaries was good to excellent, 19% felt the same about the benefits of working parents, 21% felt the availability of housing was good to excellent and an overwhelming 63% felt that day to day amenities were well priced. Doha followed with 29% of respondents stating the availability of jobs was good to excellent, 40% stating the availability of competitive salaries was good to excellent, 29% stating the same about working parents’ benefits, 21% stating the availability of affordable housing was good to excellent and 28% stating the day to day amenities were well priced.
“The Top Cities in the Middle East study revealed some very interesting insights into the Middle East with some cities like Manama and Doha recurring at the top. Indeed, 85% of respondents screened stated availability of jobs as a very crucial criterion in a city. This is not surprising considering the recent crisis and it is also the reason why cities with high employment were listed at the top of the economic factors section. The rest of the criteria upon which respondents were surveyed indicated that people in the region also valued cities built to cater to professional work environments. This is not surprising considering that most expats are attracted to this region for its current work opportunities and opportunities for career growth and development,” said Amer Zureikat, VP Sales, Bayt.com.
Data for the “Best Cities of the Middle East and North Africa 2010” research report was collected online between 21st October to 7th November 2010 with 11,662 respondents from the UAE, KSA, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Egypt, Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia.