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In 2001, the Town and Country Planning Act 1976 (Act 172) was amended through Act A1129 (2001). The amendments included provisions to allow four levels of government involvement (Federal, Regional, State and Local Authority) in spatial planning, with the intention of establishing a more effective development plan system in Malaysia. However, an assessment of the relationship between legislative provision and the implementation of development planning is urgently required to consider a number of issues, including delays in adopting plans and the continued existence of out of date plans. Therefore, this paper discusses issues and problems encountered by selected local planning authorities in the implementation of the development planning system. The discussion focuses on the capacity and capability of these authorities with regard to legal aspects, administration, finance, human resource issues and technical support. The data were obtained through mixed methods i.e. postal surveys, interviews with representatives from selected local authorities and focus group discussions with selected professional town planners. The findings demonstrate that most of the issues and problems encountered in implementing the development plan system at each plan level in Malaysia are legal in origin.

Background: The aim of this research is to assess the level of physical activity (PA) in relation to different socio-economic factors and to examine the effect of the recommended level of PA on the domains of quality of life (QoL) among residents of low-income housing in the metropolitan area of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Methods: This was a cross-sectional study that included 680 respondents from community housing projects. Reported PA was assessed using the Global Physical Activity Questionnaire (GPAQ) short form version 2. The SF-12v2 was administered to assess the health-related QoL (HRQoL) among the study population. Respondents were grouped into "active" and "insufficient" groups according to reported weekly PA level. One-way analysis of variance, analysis of co-variance, and multiple linear regression were used in the analysis. Results: Overall, 17.6% (95% CI, 14.3-20.9) of the respondents did not achieve the recommended levels of PA (≥600 metabolic equivalent [MET]-minutes week −1 ). Level of achieving recommended PA was higher among younger participants, females, members belonging to nuclear families, and in self-employed participants. The group that fulfilled recommended PA levels (active) has higher levels of QoL in all domains except physical functioning. Conclusions: Almost one out of five low-income urban residents were physically inactive. In addition, individuals who attained recommended PA levels had better scores on some domains of HRQOL than those who did not. Our findings call for tailormade public health interventions to improve PA levels among the general population and particularly for low-income residents.

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