| By Rosli Abidin
Yahya
The declining number of
visitors from Brunei Darussalam to Miri, Sarawak has been a
grave concern for the oil-rich town, as its flourishing economic
well-being had been known to depend very much upon the
purchasing power of Bruneians. The official statistics obtained
at the Sungai Tujuh checkpoint clearly pointed out the decline
over the past three years.
Miri business community has
attributed the decline of foreign visitors entering Miri's main
gateway to several factors including the economic state of
Brunei people and the increasing number of criminal activities
in Miri.
Other reasons that had been
stated include the destination shift of the Brunei people. They
were reported to have found a better shopping haven in other
places such as Kota Kinabalu, which had shown a dramatic
increase of visitors from Brunei over the past few years. Such
dramatic shift was mainly attributed to a better road leading
into the capital of Sabah.
Official statistics from the
Immigration Department revealed that 1,647,259 people passing
through the Sungai Tujuh checkpoint last year compared to
1,771,395 in 2001 and 2,013,238 in 2000.
Of the total number of people
using the checkpoint last year, 889,307 were entering the state
while 757,952 were leaving. In 2001, the breakdown was 950,121
for entering and 821,274 for leaving while in 2000, 1,095,831
were entering and 935,407 were leaving the state.
The business community in Miri
had realised that the downward trend of the visitors from Brunei
was due to the destination shift of Bruneian people from their
traditional shopping haven to Kota Kinabalu.
This is especially so for
people who are living in the Brunei-Muara district ever since
the introduction of better road facilities to Kota Kinabalu,
which can be reached in as little as four hours by road. This is
about the same time for them to reach Miri. They find the
capital town of Sabah more attractive than Miri.
The business community in Miri
has been reported to devise plans to attract Bruneians back
where the success of which may be only visible in the near
future.
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