The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) in its 2016 worldwide cost of living survey released on Thursday (March 10) ranked Singapore as the costliest ahead of Zurich, Hong Kong, Geneva and Paris.

London was sixth and New York seventh on the list that compares the cost of a basket of more than 160 items – from food, toiletries and clothing to domestic help, transport and utility bills – across 133 cities.

The cheapest cities to live in were Lusaka, the capital of Zambia, followed by Bangalore and Mumbai in India, the EIU said.

The survey is designed to help human resource and finance managers calculate cost-of-living allowances and come up with compensation packages for expatriates and business travellers.

Singapore was still the priciest city even though its cost of living when compared to costs in New York – used as the study’s base city – has come down by 10 per cent from a year ago, the EIU said.

It also noted that costs across the world have been highly volatile because of the rising US dollar, currency devaluations and movements, and falling oil and commodity prices.

This has caused big shifts in its ranking of cities.

Thus, Singapore’s lead over the next two cities has nearly evaporated. Hong Kong, because of its currency’s peg to the strong US dollar, shot up seven places to joint second place with Zurich in just 12 months.

And the unpegging of the Swiss franc from the euro helped Zurich and Geneva (4th place) retain the unenviable title of Europe’s most expensive cities as they escaped Eurozone austerity and the economic fallout from falling oil prices, said the EIU.

In contrast, a weaker Aussie dollar pushed Sydney and Melbourne out of the top 10, down to 20th and 21st place respectively.

New York and Los Angeles also shot up the ranking because of currency headwinds, not price increases. With the falling cost of oil and a strong US dollar pushing down prices, inflation has been relatively low across the US.

Despite this, New York went from 22nd to 7th place – its highest global position since 2002 – and has risen by some 42 places up the ranking since 2011, when it was barely among the 50 most expensive cities, let alone the top ten. Similarly, Los Angeles catapulted 19 places in one year to joint 8th place.

“In nearly 17 years of working on this survey I can’t recall a year as volatile as 2015,” said Jon Copestake, EIU survey editor.

“Falling commodity prices have created deflationary pressures in some countries, but in others currency weakness caused by these falls has led to spiralling inflation,” he added.

The EIU said that despite topping the ranking, Singapore still offers relative value in some categories, especially compared with its regional peers.

For general basic groceries, Singapore offers the same value as New York. This compares with Seoul, which is 33 per cent more expensive, Tokyo (26 per cent) and Hong Kong (28 per cent).

However, Singapore remains consistently expensive in other categories. It is the most expensive place in the world to buy and run a car, thanks to our Certificate of Entitlement system. Transport costs in Singapore are 2.7 times higher than in New York. Alongside Seoul, Singapore is also a very expensive city in which to buy clothes and pay for utility costs, said the EIU.

He was nominated by the NLD-led lower house of parliament on Thursday morning (March 10) and is one of three nominees for the post. Another candidate, nominated by the upper house, is Henry Van Hti Yu, an ethnic Chin minority and NLD lawmaker. The third nominee is due to be announced by the army, which has a block of 25 per cent of parliament seats.

But Htin Kyaw’s stature makes it obvious that he is the NLD’s choice for president and will be easily voted into the post by sitting Members of Parliament. This means the other two nominees will take up the positions of vice-president.

The vote is likely to take place next week, after procedural requirements including setting up of scrutinising committees.

Htin Kyaw, 69, has economics degrees from Rangoon and Oxford universities. More importantly, he comes with a sterling political and intellectual pedigree. He is the son of prominent writer and intellectual Min Thu Wun, who was an early leader of the NLD and well known to Suu Kyi‘s father, independence hero General Aung San.

Min Thu Wun, who died in 2004, was also close to U Thant, the first Asian Secretary-General of the United Nations. They were born within two weeks of each other in 1909.

Htin Kyaw’s wife Su Su Lwin is also close to Suu Kyi, and is herself the daughter of a former army colonel, the late U Lwin, who was an early member of the NLD, helping to set up the party and leading it in the 1990s.

Su Su Lwin, who won a by-election in 2012 from her father’s old constituency Thongwa, won again last November. She is head of the lower house’s international relations committee.

“This is why it is important for governments to support the development of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which is the biggest source of employment in Asean.

“If employment is seriously threatened, barriers will rise, which will cause the AEC to be rolled back, if not fail,” he said in statement yesterday.

The Asean-Bac had met up with Malaysian SMEs and SME associations to learn the challenges being faced by the sector since the AEC was pronounced last year.

It is part of a series of dialogues to be held nationwide with multiple SMEs and other organisations.

There is also Malaysia’s ratification of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) looming which would increase the pressure of liberalized markets on SMEs, Asean-Bac added.

“As the entity mandated by Asean leaders to provide private sector feedback and guidance to boost Asean’s efforts towards economic integration, this meeting and others to come will be submitted as recommendations through Asean-Bac for the consideration of Asean leaders during the next AseanLeaders summit in Vientiane in September,” Munir added.

Munir pointed out that the 2025 Blueprint placed a responsibility on Asean-Bac to coordinate private sector viewpoints and to ensure more effective collaboration between the private and official sector in Asean.

Asean-Bac had met early in February in Vientiane to map out its work plan for the year and its representatives had a session with Asean economic ministers in Chiangmai at the beginning of this month.

“Asean-Bac Malaysia is committed to ensuring it provides the necessary support to Malaysian SMEs and indeed, SMEs across the Asean region,” he said.

He said the recently launched Growth Accelerator Exchange, a financing programme for SMEs in November 2015, was an effort by Asean-Bac to mitigate the daily challenge of reducing the cost of doing business for micro, small and medium enterprises.

With the date fast approaching for Suu Kyi‘s National League for Democracy (NLD) to take power, efforts to portray the party and its former foes as working cordially together towards a smooth transfer of power have faltered, according to politicians and officials familiar with the situation.

“She believed that she would be able to work with the military, but after the last meeting with the commander-in-chief, she realised that she cannot negotiate with them,” said a senior NLD Upper House lawmaker briefed on the talks. “It’s quite clear that she has moved on from waiting for the military to collaborate.”

Talks between the NLD and the military began soon after Suu Kyi‘s party won a landslide victory in a historic election on November 8, heralding the country’s first democratically elected government since the military took power in 1962. But Suu Kyi has become frustrated with the intransigence of the military on issues ranging from a constitutional amendment that would allow her to become president to the location of the handover ceremony before the start of the new government on April 1, say sources in her camp.

General Tin San Naing, the spokesman for military MPs, declined to comment on the details of negotiations. The military has stressed its belief that it has a vital role to play in politics until the transition to democracy is secure, and had worried that changing the constitution quickly could set a dangerous precedent.

Myanmar’s junta handed power to a semi-civilian government made up of ex-generals in 2011, after nearly 50 years of military rule, but the constitution it drafted left the military with considerable power.

As well as a clause that effectively bans Suu Kyi from becoming president because her children are British citizens, the constitution also gives the military three powerful ministries and 25 per cent of the seats in parliament that amounts to a veto over any constitutional change. The charter will force the NLD government to work with the military.

Speaking at the function, President Truonng Tan Sang hailed the Saigon Newport Corporation and the Vietnam Oil and Gas Group (PetroVietnam) for completing the first phase of this important project.

The President stressed on the strategic and potential location of the port while noting Vietnam’s long coastline of more than 3,200 kilometres.

“The inauguration of the port will not only support nation building and its protection but also make it one of Vietnam’s leading deep-sea ports and supply service areas,” he said.

He urged the Saigon Newport Corporation to step up the implementation of the second phase of the project, ensuring its progress and quality.

Once completed, Cam Ranh International Port, with an investment of 2 trillion Vietnamese dong (nearly US$89 million), is expected to become the biggest port in Vietnam in terms of wharf length, which could handle 18 ships at one time and accommodate ships of up to 110,000 DWT.

It is capable of receiving 185 ships each year, and is designed to protect ships against 8-level wind and storms.

The port will serve both civilian and military vessels.

Cam Ranh Bay holds a strategic position in the East Sea due to its proximity to international navigation routes and Hoang Sa (Paracel) and Truong Sa (Spratly) Archipelagos, as well as to the oil and gas areas in the south-east continental shelf of Vietnam.

Nguyen Duc Thuan, Vietnam Leather and Footwear Association (Lefaso) chairman, said chances on promoting exports and expanding export markets would remain this year due to advantages from free trade agreements (FTAs) with the European Union (EU), South Korea and especially Trans Pacific Partnerships (TPP) agreement.

The zero tax rate under the Vietnam-EU FTA and TPP effective in 2018 would, in the future, promote Vietnam’s exports in leather, footwear, bags, and umbrellas, in addition to suitcases, he said.

In addition, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) recently declared partially invalid an anti-dumping regulation on certain leather footwear imports to the EU from China and Vietnam.

It said that the Council of the EU and EU Commission did not comply with certain procedural rules when the regulation was adopted.

On October 5, 2006, the Council of the EU adopted a regulation imposing an anti-dumping duty on certain leather footwear imported from China and Vietnam to the EU with a rate at 16.5 per cent for footwear manufactured by companies established in China (with the exception of the company Golden Step, whose anti-dumping duty was set at 9.7 per cent), and at 10 per cent for footwear manufactured by companies established in Vietnam.

The positive change of the anti-dumping tariff for Vietnamese footwear would support local footwear in reducing difficulties of production and business at present, he said.

Last year, Vietnam gained high growth rate in export value from the leather and footwear industry at $15 billion, an increase of 16 per cent year-on-year, according to the association, including $12 billion from footwear.

Ha Duy Hung, chairman of the Dong Hung Industry Joint Stock Company, said the local leather and footwear industry has in the past developed key export markets in Europe, United States and Japan, and they expected higher exports to those markets in the future as interests increase after the FTAs, the Dau tu online reported.

Now, Vietnam is one of four largest footwear producers in volume on the world market, after China, India and Brazil, and is also the third largest footwear exporters in value on the global market, after China and Italy. Domestic footwear products have been shipped to 50 countries and territories.