Petaling Jaya

Town of Peninsular Malyasia, 9 km/6 mi southwest of Kuala Lumpur, of which it is a suburb; population (2000 est) 438,100. Major industries are engineering and electronics, as well as the processing of food, rubber, and wood, and the manufacture of paper, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, fertilisers, and beverages. The town contains the largest car plant in Southeast Asia. Petaling Jaya is now part of Shah Alam, the capital of Selangor state.

The town was established in 1953 as a satellite for squatters from Kuala Lumpur, but is now one of the most affluent cities of Malaysia. A technical institution offers training in automobile engineering, refrigeration, and electronics, and there is also a film studio and a teaching hospital. Petaling Jaya is the home of the national archives of Malaysia, the Cooperative College of Malaysia, and the Malaysian branch of the Royal Asiatic Society.

It was conceived as a new town in 1952, when the Selangor government acquired 285 ha/1,198 acres of old rubber estates and tin workings for low density residential development, with 120 ha/297 acres for an industrial estate. By 1966 there were 210 factories employing 10,000 workers, with manufacturing encouraged by government incentives. The combined residential and industrial area had grown to 2,425 ha/5,992 acres by 1970. Petaling Jaya's population has grown to its present level from about 5,000 in 1955.