Malaysia-Indonesia informal cross border trade: A case study of Serikin, Bau District, Sarawak

Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand Growth Triangle (IMT-Growth Triangle) cooperation was designed to stimulate economic growth in the three countries. Malaysia’s Sarawak and Indonesia’s Kalimantan are integrated in this development plan which provides the context for the cross border transactions of commodities to continue to flourish at some cross-border sites. Although no formal cross-border route and center of international immigration and custom checks point (CIQ) exists, Serikin has developed as a dynamic centre of informal trade. Indonesian small-scale traders and Malaysian consumers gathered on weekends to carry out business transactions in this small town. This article discusses the cross-border informal trade activities in Serikin with emphasis on the factors that drove the small-scale traders to do informal cross border trades there, reasons for selecting Serikin as the business avenue among the Indonesian traders and the spillover impact of the informal trade on the local community. Income generation and socio-cultural ties were found to be the main driving forces behind Serikin’s cross-border trades while the magnitude of the trades is yet to make substantial impacts on the general life of the local community.