City Competitiveness and Urban Sprawl: Their Implications to Socio-Economic and Cultural Life in Malaysian Cities

Malaysia officially became an urban nation in 1991. Currently about 65 percent of her population reside in urban areas. In era of globalization much emphasis is given for the cities to become economically competitive. Consequently, the trend of urban sprawl has continued unabated in major metropolitans of Malaysia, whereby most of new developments are located in the periphery. These developments have implications to socio-economic developments and cultural aspects of cities in Malaysia. These impacts, including the flight of the economically marginalized to the suburbs and the declined of cultural aspects of the city are analyzed in the paper.