A BORDER town to improve cross border barter trade between Sabah and northern Kalimantan will be established in Serudong once a road link under the Pan Borneo Highway project is completed.

Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Abdul Rahman Dahlan said the road is expected to increase regional trade in the Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines – East Asian Growth Area (BIMP-Eaga) as sea routes are threatened by increasing criminal activity.

“Barter trade between Sabah and Kalimantan could be increased via land connectivity, and as an alternative to sea, which is facing a threat on criminal activities at sea in the East Coast,” he told reporters here at a breaking of fast event on Friday night.

Rahman said an Immigration and Quarantine Centre will be set up to control two-way trade between the countries and he had commissioned the Asian Development Bank to look into the feasibility of the programme.

“I have proposed this to the State Cabinet and North Kalimantan, and their response had been positive. A preliminary report released by the ADB showed that the numbers were good. But we would have to wait for another two or three months to get the full report,” he said.

There are currently no roads connecting Sabah and northern Kalimantan but a RM12 billion project under the Pan Borneo Highway will link the two areas when completed.

Rahman also said Sabah needs to engage with its BIMP-Eaga partners more as the state is strategically located to benefit from economic activities like ship repairs, tourism and others.

Earlier, he pointed out that Sabah could set up a ship repair bunker in the East Coast as it is located in the middle of a shipping route between from Australia and New Zealand to Japan and other Asian countries. – June 17, 2017.