It will be noted that Sabah sits geocentrically within a region bounded by Vietnam, the Philippines, Peninsula Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia. Please refer to map.

Sabah has a population of around 2.6 million people equalling just over one-tenth of the country’s population. The capital of Sabah is the City of Kota Kinabalu which has a residential population of some 500,000 people in its own right. State GDP growth is in the order of 4% annually.

There are some interesting similarities between Sabah and Western Australia including population size, the proportion of the state versus the national population and the relative isolation of both states from their respective national capitals.

Whilst Bahasa Malaysia is the official language Chinese and English are widely spoken. Islam is the official religion but the nation’s constitution guarantees freedom of worship.

On a national basis, as at 2006[1] Malaysia’s export trade to Australia represented AUD$5,360 million, whilst Australia exported AUD$2,850 million of goods and services to Malaysia. Two of the highest value Malaysian exports were electrical and electronic products and crude petroleum whilst the stand out Australian export to Malaysia was manufactured metal goods. Over the 2005/06 years Malaysian exports to Australia reduced in financial terms by 7.4% and Australian exports to Malaysia increased by 8.7%.

For Sabah, total trade in 2005 stood at AUD $14,291[2] million, of which exports accounted for AUD $7,966 million, and imports of AUD $6,325 million. This result delivered a trade surplus of AUD $1,642 million. The growth in exports is expected to continue to improve, given the high commodity prices for palm oil, rubber and crude oil and the expansion of the oil and gas sector.

Sabah’s five largest export markets are China, India, Korea, the Netherlands and Japan while her five main sources of imports are the U.S.A., Singapore and Indonesia.

The main engine of economic growth continues to be Agriculture and Livestock sector (mainly palm oil and palm kernel oil), followed by the Mining and Quarrying sector (mainly crude petroleum). Palm oil products and crude petroleum were the dominant export commodities for the State. Together, they made up 60% of Sabah’s total export revenue.

Sabah’s development agenda places emphasis on agriculture, manufacturing and tourism, which is generally in tandem with Malaysian national policy. During 2006[3], Sabah’s real GDP was estimated to expand at between 6.0% - 6.5%. Inflation followed the sharp increase in world oil prices resulting in a consumer price index of approximately 3% - on par with the national Malaysian average.