LANDING in Balikpapan after a 2-hour direct AirAsia flight from Kuala Lumpur makes you realise how close you are to some of Indonesia’s most bustling cities. My trip to Balikpapan was sparked off by a meeting I had some four months earlier with the city’s personable mayor, Bapak Rizal Effendi in Jakarta at a lunch for editors from Indonesia’s largest newspaper group, Jawa Pos. He convinced me that it is important to promote Malaysia in cities outside Jakarta.

At the time I promised him that I’d visit his city the premier commercial hub in the booming natural resource province of East Kalimantan within the next four months. It wasn’t easy to arrange but with the Asean Economic Ministers’ Meeting set for Manado, I was able to pack in a quick trip to Pak Rizal’s home city.

With a population of just over 600,000, Balikpapan is a thoroughly business-focused city framed by the Makassar Straits on one side and countless rolling hills on the other. There is an intriguing mix of tall apartment blocks, shopping malls, 4 and 5 star hotels as well as low rise and densely packed housing interspersed with many buildings sporting the distinctive Dayak layang-layang roofs. I could feel the dynamism of this fast growing city.

The city’s airport, Sepinggan, is Indonesia’s fourth busiest. Indeed, there were many planes six 737s and Airbuses parked on the tarmac not to mention other private commercial airplanes and helicopters. This airport has experienced phenomenal growth in recent years. Plans are already in place to increase passenger capacity from 5 million to 15 million passengers per annum.

East Kalimantan is Indonesia’s largest producer of coal (54%) and oil and gas (34%). With a population of 3.2 million spread over an area 1 times the size of Java and three times the size of Sabah, there are large areas outside of the two main cities (Balikpapan and the provincial capital, Samarinda) which are only very sparsely populated especially to the north near the Sabah and Sarawak border.

On my arrival I called on the leading local newspaper, Kaltim Pos where I had a discussion with its editors as well as a live TV interview. Interestingly, the Balikpapan journalists were also pretty well-informed about Malaysia. There was the inevitable question about Indonesian workers in Sabah.

Later at Buka Puasa hosted by the charming and extremely knowledgeable Governor, Bapak Awang Faroek I was to receive along with my delegation where many of whom are from Sabah an impressive power-point presentation on his province’s potential as well as the infrastructural projects they were targeting to build.

Indeed, as we discussed East Kalimantan’s huge coal resources and the province’s infrastructure needs over Buka Puasa, I was struck by the extent to which Bahasa Malaysia and Bahasa Indonesia really brought the two sides together. I know many people deride the idea ofserumpun but there’s no denying the advantage we Malaysians have in penetrating and connecting with Indonesians because of our shared language. Moreover, it’s well worth reflecting on the enormous economic value of Bahasa Malaysia/Indonesia especially for those who doubt its use commercially. With fluency in Bahasa Malaysia/Indonesia one is able to do business across this archipelagaic nation of over 240 million consumers. So parents please remember that learning and acquiring fluency in Bahasa Malaysia has a very real economic future value.

Moreover, I also noted Awang Faroek’s passionate interest in Malay culture and Malay songs so much so that he was hosting a Festival Zapin in the provincial capital in December.
East Kalimantan, also known as Kaltim or Kalimantan Timur, is just one of Indonesia’s thirty-three provinces. However, it’s also one of the richest and largest. And with the introduction of greater decentralisation since 2001, these provinces have become more autonomous.

For Malaysians and Malaysian businessmen and women they represent a new horizon of investment opportunities. There are big plans to expand palm oil production from 500,000 ha to 1.5 million ha, not to mention coal and other resources.

However, the opportunities work both ways and for Malaysian service providers, East Kalimantan is also an exciting market. Many of the local businessmen I met were very familiar with Kuala Lumpur and Kota Kinabalu. Indeed some had educated their children at schools and universities in Malaysia. At the same time they’d taken the opportunity to do their medical check-ups in Kuala Lumpur, Penang and Malacca.

I met a group of high net worth individuals who plan to do a group tour later in the year to explore trade and investment opportunities in Malaysia.
I had the opportunity to visit Bayan Resources a major producer of coal in Kaltim. It is owned by a Singaporean but run by Malaysians. Bapak Lim, the chief executive of this company, has been in Kaltim for 29 years. He told me that there are 40 Malaysians working in the company.

As per capita income rises, the middle class and well-off Indonesians will travel, seek medical treatment and have their children study abroad. AirAsia has made all this possible with 3 flights a week between Kuala Lumpur and Balikpapan. Additional flights between Kota Kinabalu and Balikpapan will certainly boost ties. In my meetings with the businessmen, I urged them to travel to Malaysia, establish joint ventures with Malaysian companies, buy apartments and houses, seek medical treatment and educate their children in Malaysia.

I see a bright prospect for greater trade and investment between Sabah and Kalimantan Timur’s population. And this is consistent with our objective of enhancing Asean’s connectivity and realise the Asean Economic Community in 2015.