Singapore is top Asian city of the future for 2nd time running

For the second year in a row, Singapore has topped a regional ranking of cities based on how well-prepared they are for the future. (The Straits Times/Alphonsus Chern)

For the second year in a row, Singapore has topped a regional ranking of cities based on how well-prepared they are for the future.

Shanghai and Seoul rounded off the top three winners.

These rankings are by FDI Intelligence, a bi-monthly magazine that is an offshoot of the company that publishes the Financial Times newspaper.

In FDI Intelligence's inaugural rankings for the years 2009/2010, Singapore was its top future city and so too for 2011/2012.

Minister of State for National Development and Trade and Industry Lee Yi Shyan accepted the award for the city-state at a lunch on the first day of this year's World Cities Summit at the Marina Bay Convention Centre.

Singapore was in the top 10 for six of FDI's seven ranking categories. It beat 140 other regional cities with its world-class infrastructure and prescient foreign direct investment strategy. It was also No. 2 for economic potential and No. 3 for business friendliness, but lost its shine in human resources (No. 5) and quality of life (No. 9).

It was, however, not among the region's 10 most cost-effective countries, which included Phnom Penh, Cambodia and Hao Phong and Da Nang in Vietnam.