Two Asian cities have topped the latest list of global infrastructure quality compiled by the World Economic Forum.

The latest Global Competitiveness Report indicates that Hong Kong and Singapore have the world’s best overall infrastructure.

The report assesses the competitive capabilities of 144 economies around the world by means of 12 different “pillars” that comprise the Global Competitiveness Index. These pillars include institutions, infrastructure, the macroeconomic environment, health and education, higher education and financial markets.

According to the report’s infrastructure study, Hong Kong and Singapore take first and second place respectively in terms of overall infrastructure quality, with scores of 6.7 and 6.5 out of seven respectively.

The United Arab Emirates tied with the Netherlands for third and fourth place, both with scores of 6.3, while Switzerland ranked fifth with a score of 6.2.

Other nations with scores above six included Japan, Germany, France Spain and the United Kingdom, which rounded out the top 10 economies with the best infrastructure.

Australia came in 20th on the list for overall infrastructure quality with a score of 5.6, behind Taiwan (5.8), South Korean (5.7) Portugal (5.7), but ahead of Sweden (5.5), New Zealand (5.3) and Norway (5.2).

In terms of transportation infrastructure, the United Arab emirates came out on top, followed by Singapore and Hong Kong in second and third place respectively, with the Netherlands and Japan rounding out the top five.

Hong Kong has the world’s best electricity and telephony infrastructure, followed by Luxembourg and Switzerland. Austria, Singapore and the UK ranked exceptionally well in this category, with all three countries making the top five.

Australia ranked 19th in the world in terms of transportation infrastructure, with a score of 5.2, and 21st in terms of electricity and telephony infrastructure.

The country’s roads ranked relatively poorly however, taking 43rd place on the list with a score of 4.8, putting Australia below Swaziland and Mauritius, that posted scores of 4.9 and 4.8 respectively. Railroads were slightly better, with a score of 4.0 putting Australia in 32nd place just behind Ireland and Latvia.

Australia’s electricity supply infrastructure ranked 27th in the world, with its score of 6.2, putting the country on par with Taiwan, Saudi Arabia, New Zealand, Slovenia and Bahrain.

The ranking for fixed line telephone infrastructure was more impressive, with Australia’s 44.3 active fixed telephone lines per 100 people putting it 16th in the world, just behind Israel and ahead of Ireland.

In terms of mobile telephone subscriptions however, Australia came in at a dismal 81st place, with 106.9 post-paid and pre-paid subscriptions per 100 members of the population.