Rural, poor and marginalized community often face many challenges in achieving economic equality and attaining socio-economic sustainability, especially among rural communities who have limited sources of income. In countries with emerging economies such as Malaysia, rural populations constitute the majority of citizens. They are generally poorer and more disadvantaged than their urban counterparts. In Malaysia, rural communities and their development are important aspects of a country’s political and economic stability in which revitalization of the rural economic is part and parcel of a nation’s development. Rural revitalization is an outcome of the interplay between many sources of influence and it is also a response to the opportunities and challenges which are presented by rural decline. This paper provides an overview of revitalization of rural areas. Besides that, it also explains the factors differences in economic performance and socioeconomic differentiation in rural areas in order to achieve a better outcome for rural revitalization. Finally, this paper discusses the framework to revitalize rural areas and the methods to use this framework that measure rural economic performance.

Planning for sustainable rural development in Malaysia has entered a phase where rural areas are no longer tied merely to food production as an economic activity. The increasing demand for rural amenities, ecosystem services and preservation of cultural landscapes generates the idea of a much diverse option for an alleviation of the local economy. Due to the variation of local actors, resources, and activities, sustainable rural planning requires the understanding of the complex development processes occurring in its territories. The rural web is an analytical framework that can be used to understand the dynamic relationships between different domains of rural development. In this paper, the rural web is used as a tool to comprehensively analyze the economic performance of the village’s development and economic activity of rural areas in Johor. This paper discusses the study areas of six villages from six different rural areas surrounding the state of Johor. The finding shows that KampungParitPuteriMenangis has the highest economic performance while KampungPayaBesar was identified as the lowest economic performance compared to other villages. Market governance was identified as the major domain of the rural web in the twenty economic projects identified in six selected villages for this study.

Over a years SMEs in Malaysia have had a significant impact on city growth by producing successful entrepreneurs as well as enhancing the competitiveness and efficiency of the business market. In Malaysia, the government and the private sectors are important entities in attracting potential entrepreneurs to venture into SMEs, especially among rural entrepreneurs. The contribution of the SME sector is very significant to the country’s business market growth by producing successful entrepreneurs through their involvement in this sector throughout the years. However, the challenges of global market uncertainty due to the protracted health crisis that has struck the world’s business market, including Malaysia, particularly the small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Hence, this paper aims to identify the factors for SMEs’ resilience in facing the business market challenges in Malaysia. Besides that, this paper also provides an overview of the business market challenges Malaysian SMEs entrepreneurs in terms of movement restrictions, business operation, revenue uncertainty, people’s purchasing power and others. Finally, this paper recommends an appropriate framework that integrates the factors for SMEs’ resilience with the identified business market challenges in Malaysia.

Since before the British rule, the issues and problems of urban transformation growth have continued until today, especially in rural areas and small towns. Rural communities also have undergone significant transformations in recent decades. There are positive and negative impacts on adaptation the growth of regional development that impact significantly on the rural community, which needs to be addressed to overcome the adverse effects on those that involved. This also included the changes in a case study of rural areas that have been chosen, which is located in sub-district that categorize under rural areas at Johor Bahru due to Iskandar Malaysia region expansions. Furthermore, the developmental transformation has mainly affected the changes in the socio-economic well-being of rural communities. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of studies on a factor of socio-economic well-being development in rural areas for creating a framework to measure the impact of regional development on the socio-economic well-being of the rural.

Rural, poor and marginalized community often face many challenges in achieving economic equality and attaining socio-economic sustainability, especially among rural communities who have limited sources of income. Although it involves complex issues, it cannot be disregarded. Rural areas and its communities are important aspects of a country’s political and economic stability. In countries with emerging and developing economies such as Malaysia, rural populations constitute the majority of citizens. They are generally poorer and more disadvantaged than their urban counterparts. The study determines the factors for the differences in economic performance of the rural areas in Malaysia. The study also provides the framework to revitalize rural areas and the methods to use this framework that measure rural economic performance. Several methods were used to collect the information from rural communities using in-depth interview and structured survey. These two methods are important for this research in order to understand how the rural areas and its communities faced situation of growth or decline. By using this framework, the analysis of differentiation of economic performance provides understanding on how variation of factor influencing economic performance in rural areas and direct measures should be implemented in solving issues of rural decline.