SAMARINDA, East Kalimantan: The East Kalimantan administration announced on Monday that it would allocate Rp 629 billion ($65.4 million), or 4.8 percent of its 2013 budget, toward developing communities along its border with Malaysia, Jakarta Globe reported.
Deputy Governor Farid Wadjdy said on Tuesday that there was an urgent need to develop these areas, many of which are heavily reliant on trade with Malaysian communities because of their inaccessibility from within Indonesia.
“We will try our utmost to boost infrastructure development along the border region in a bid to make development throughout all of East Kalimantan more equitable,” he said.
He added that of the Rp 629 billion allocated for this purpose, Rp 400 billion would be used in a joint program with the military to upgrade three airstrips along the border.
“The development of roads, bridges and aviation infrastructure in the three border districts must be ramped up to allow greater access to these regions and improve interconnectivity between regions. This time next year, the areas that are now isolated will be accessible,” Farid said.
Under the recently approved 2013 provincial budget, the administration will also offer full scholarships for secondary and tertiary education to academically gifted students from the border areas.
The welfare of residents living along East Kalimantan’s 1,038-kilometer-long border with Malaysia has long been lamented, with some officials even warning that their continued neglect by the Indonesian authorities could allow the areas to fall under Malaysian control.
Earlier this year, the provincial chapter of the Indonesian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Kadin) warned that the deep isolation and poor monitoring of the region had allowed the illegal cross-border trade to spiral in value to Rp 60 trillion a year.
Fauzi Bachtar, the local Kadin chairman, said in October that because the Indonesian communities had much easier access to Malaysian villages and towns, it was far cheaper for them to cross the border and get their supplies there than to have it brought in from elsewhere in Indonesia, often by small plane due to the lack of roads.
Another problem was the government’s inability to properly secure the province’s porous border with Malaysia’s Sabah and Sarawak states.
He also alleged that border officials were taking kickbacks, allowing Malaysian goods to come through without the required paperwork or taxes.
The central government’s response to the issue has been to call for the establishment of a new province, North Kalimantan, which is only expected to officially take shape sometime next year.