Malaysia Modern Rural Ranking Index: Validated Dimensions, Criteria Groups, and Performance Criteria

In Malaysia, rural areas are essential economic focal points for improving rural livelihoods and reducing the life quality gaps between urban and rural areas. To that extent, rural assets and resources, such as agricultural, entrepreneurial, business, and tourism, along with rural infrastructure and service centres, become important elements to further explore and assess for synergising rural change towards a modern approach. To our knowledge, no attempt has been made to assess rural development progress based on the transition towards a modern rural approach. Inspired by this, the study aims to offer a Malaysia modern rural ranking index, the Malaysia Assessment Measure for Modern Rural Development (MAMRD)—a missing link approach for assessing rural development progress towards a modern rural system. The MAMRD was validated based on focus group discussions (FGDs) on three case studies and finally constructed on the three dimension-objectives measure, comprising 13 criteria groups and 141 criteria, to rank a village in a MAMRD star rating index. Using the MAMRD for the rural assessment is reliable for assessing the rural performance towards the future niches of rural development in Malaysia—rural resilient-liveability-and-smart.