Masliba Balingian a New Frontier in Economic Development

Balingian is a small district located in the Mukah division, Sarawak, Malaysia still far behind in terms of development and socio-economic infrastructure. Until now, no physical development that could transform the economy of the residents of this villages. As a first step, a Balingian-Mukah road built by the government can be used as a platform to transform the economy of the residents Balingian.

In an initiative to create and activate economic activities outside conventional practice in a small area Balingian, a 'Blue Ocean stategy' can inspire and create forms of community-based tourism activities. This approach is a method of transformation of present society's development has been a success raising economic and social needs of a local community by offering products downstream and upstream locally. Hence, the proposal to activate the local economy in a small area Balingian through homestay program is very timely.

One of the key strategies to ensure an effective and comprehensive planning in rural tourism is creating a movement through the assembly of a village community. Meaning in this context is to merge the village of MASLIBA community with consist of 3 villages (1) Kampug Mesjid, (2) Kampung Lintang, and (3) Kampung Baru into one single Co-operative movement body.It is estimated that there are approximately 132 houses in this 3 villages, and if one house has 5 households means of 660 villagers will be able to enjoy the fruits of economic booms directly from rural tourism activities if the program going well. For this purpose, the Koperasi Masliba Balingian Sarawak Berhad (KMBSB) has been formed sometime in Mac 2014 and was registered on May 16, 2014 as legitimate corporations by the Cooperative Commission of Malaysia (CCM).

In accommodating  the challenges and to sustain rural tourism in the village  of Masliba, KMBSB plan to develop rural tourism business through 2 phases. Phase 1 is promoting and developing tourism base on Homestay programme using selected village houses, and Phase 2,  building a floating houses (Floating Chalet) or to be known as Lamin Danum (local dialect) in the river near the village of Masliba. The journey to transform the village of Masliba into a rural base economic tourism activities is in the pipe line and just begun.