This paper traces the development of new towns and planning of new regions in West Malaysia. It examines the changing urban and regional development in 1963-1976, agriculture regions were developed by the Ministry of Agriculture. In the second phase, the Malaysian government introduced a regional development strategy under the New Economic Policy (NEP), 1971-1985. At the same time, the SEDCs developed the FTZs. This overlapping and lack of coordination created regional imbalances. However in the third phase, the government introduced the more comprehensive policy and implemented a regional metropolitan and subsystem development strategy for the whole country.