Malinau Kota is a

district A district is a type of administrative division that in some countries is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or county, counties, several municipality, municip ...

and the

regency seat A regency seat () is a capital or seat of government of a regency in Indonesia. It is roughly equivalent of county seat in the United States or county town in the United Kingdom. Legally, regency seats are not administrative subdivisions of Ind ...

Malinau Regency Malinau Regency is a Regencies of Indonesia, regency of North Kalimantan Province in Indonesia. It was created on 4 October 1999 from the western districts of Bulungan Regency. The administrative centre is the town of Malinau Kota, Malinau. The r ...

North Kalimantan North Kalimantan () is a Provinces of Indonesia, province of Indonesia. It is located on the northernmost of Kalimantan, the Indonesian part of the island of Borneo. North Kalimantan borders the Malaysian states of Sabah to the north and Sarawa ...

province. The town is the economic center of the regency, largest town in the regency, and serves as a gateway for interior towns and villages around the

Heart of Borneo The Heart of Borneo is a conservation agreement initiated by the World Wide Fund for Nature to protect a 220,000 km² forested region on Borneo island. The agreement was signed by the governments of Brunei, Indonesia and Malaysia in Bali on ...

especially neighbouring Krayan region in

Nunukan Regency Nunukan Regency is a regency of North Kalimantan Province in Indonesia. It was created on 4 October 1999 from the northern districts of Bulungan Regency. Nunukan Regency shares international borders with the Malaysian states of Sabah to the north ...

. It had a population of 27,736 (or around 32.5% of the entire regency's population) in mid 2022.

Geography

The district borders North Malinau District in the north, Western Malinau District in the south and western, and

Tana Tidung Regency Tana Tidung Regency is a Regencies of Indonesia, regency within the Indonesian provinces, Indonesian province of North Kalimantan. It is Indonesia's least populous regency, with 25,584 inhabitants recorded in the 2020 census;Badan Pusat Statisti ...

in the east.

Climate

Malinau has a

tropical rainforest climate A tropical rainforest climate or equatorial climate is a tropical climate sub-type usually found within 10 to 15 degrees latitude of the equator. There are some other areas at higher latitudes, such as the coast of southeast Florida, United States ...

(Af) with heavy to very heavy rainfall year-round.

Demographics

The district has a population of 25,596 people or 31% of the regency's population, spread out across six administrative villages within the district. Most of the district's population is concentrated on the village with the same name as the district, Malinau Kota, which consists of 51% of the district's population. This followed by Malinau Hulu village with 26%. The population, as with most of places in Indonesia, is relatively young and dominated by a demographic age of 15 to 64. The district also has a

dependency ratio The dependency ratio is an age-population ratio of those typically not in the labor force (the ''dependent'' part ages 0 to 14 and 65+) and those typically in the labor force (the ''productive'' part ages 15 to 64). It is used to measure the press ...

of 46.79 which means that between 100 people, there are 46 or 47 people that are considered unproductive or not working.

Economy

Being the capital of the regency, the district has limited agricultural products and mostly have shifted to secondary or tertiary sectors. It has a limited amount of cultivated area, with only 17 hectares being cultivated for vegetables and fruits in 2021. The agriculture output in the same year includes 480 quintals of

red chili Chili peppers, also spelled chile or chilli ( ), are varieties of berry-fruit plants from the genus ''Capsicum'', which are members of the nightshade family Solanaceae, cultivated for their pungency. They are used as a spice to add pungency ( ...

, 1,840 quintals of

cayenne pepper The cayenne pepper is a type of ''Capsicum annuum''. It is usually a hot chili pepper used to flavor dishes. Cayenne peppers are a group of tapering, 10 to 25 cm long, generally skinny, mostly red-colored peppers, often with a curved ti ...

, 100 quintals of

spinach Spinach (''Spinacia oleracea'') is a leafy green flowering plant native to Central Asia, Central and Western Asia. It is of the order Caryophyllales, family Amaranthaceae, subfamily Chenopodioideae. Its leaves are a common vegetable consumed eit ...

, 300 quintals of

water spinach ''Ipomoea aquatica'', commonly known as water spinach or kangkung, is a semi- aquatic, tropical plant grown as a vegetable for its tender shoots. ''I. aquatica'' is generally believed to have been first domesticated in Southeast Asia. It is wi ...

, and 800 quintals of

watermelon The watermelon (''Citrullus lanatus'') is a species of flowering plant in the family Cucurbitaceae, that has a large, edible fruit. It is a Glossary of botanical terms#scandent, scrambling and trailing vine-like plant, and is plant breeding ...

s. There are also various fruits produced from the district such as

durian The durian () is the edible fruit of several tree species belonging to the genus ''Durio''. There are 30 recognized species, at least nine of which produce edible fruit. ''Durio zibethinus'', native to Borneo and Sumatra, is the only species ...

tangerine The tangerine is a type of citrus fruit that is orange in colour, that is considered either a variety of the mandarin orange (''Citrus reticulata''), or a closely related species, under the name ''Citrus tangerina'', or yet as a hybrid (''Citr ...

mango A mango is an edible stone fruit produced by the tropical tree '' Mangifera indica''. It originated from the region between northwestern Myanmar, Bangladesh, and northeastern India. ''M. indica'' has been cultivated in South and Southeast As ...

jackfruit The jackfruit or ''nangka'' (''Artocarpus heterophyllus'') is a species of tree in the Common fig, fig, mulberry, and breadfruit family (Moraceae). The jackfruit is the largest tree fruit, reaching as much as in weight, in length, and in d ...

, and

papaya The papaya (, ), papaw, () or pawpaw () is the plant species ''Carica papaya'', one of the 21 accepted species in the genus '' Carica'' of the family Caricaceae, and also the name of its fruit. It was first domesticated in Mesoamerica, within ...

. Due to limited infrastructure in surrounding districts, neighbouring villages' residents often have to travel to the district for access to basic financial services or to trade their agricultural products. This resulted in the district being an important economic center in the region in general. There are 8 branches of banks in the district, 6 in Malinau Kota village and 2 in Malinau Hulu village. Hotels and inns are concentrated in the district, with 12 out of 15 accommodations in the entire regency located in the district. Almost 70% of visitors to the regency are concentrated in the district, along with more than 70% of the regency's registered restaurants or 119 out of 168 restaurants in the entire regency in 2021. The village of Malinau Kota hosts 17 registered minimarket and convenience stores. The district is gateway to Krayan through a road that is as of 2022 still under construction, making the district a potential tourism gateway.

Governance

As a

, it is a third-level administrative region under a regency. A district head (''camat'') is appointed directly by the regent with recommendation from the regency secretary. Malinau Kota itself has no parliament. The district is divided into six administrative villages (''desa'') with below listed the villages as well as the population as of 2021. *Batu Lidung (1,598) *Tanjung Keranjang (643) *Malinau Hilir (1,354) *Malinau Kota (13,067) *Pelita Kanaan (2,233) *Malinau Hulu (6,701) On regency level, the district is part of Malinau 1st electoral district together with North Malinau, Mentarang, Mentarang Hulu, and Sungai Tubu District sends 12 out of 20 representatives to regency's parliament. The last election was in

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

and the next one would be in 2024.

Infrastructure

The district has 12 kindergartens, 13 elementary schools, 6 junior high schools, 4 senior high schools, in addition to one vocational high school. In addition, one of two regency's only tertiary education institution, Malinau Polytechnic, is located in the district. The education infrastructure of the regency in general is mainly concentrated in this district, where many parents sent their children for school or college due to lack of facilities in other districts. The district has one polyclinic, one

puskesmas The (), abbreviated as , are government-mandated community health clinics located across Indonesia. They are overseen by the Indonesian Ministry of Health and provide healthcare for the population on sub-district level. The concept was desi ...

, and 10 pharmacies. There are 54 mosques, 48 churches, 2

pura Pura may refer to: Places * Pura, Kushtagi, a village in Koppal district, Karnataka, India * Pura, Iran, a village in Mazandaran Province, Iran * Pura, Tarlac, a municipality in the Philippines * Pura, Switzerland, a municipality in Ticino, Sw ...

, and 4 Chinese temples in the district. The main market buildings are located in Malinau Kota and Pelita Kanaan. The villages of Malinau Kota, Pelita Kanaan, and Malinau Hulu are served by

angkot A share taxi, shared taxi, taxibus, or jitney or dollar van in the US, or marshrutka in former Soviet countries, is a mode of transport which falls between a taxicab and a bus. Share taxis are a form of paratransit. They are vehicles for hire an ...

s with fixed route. The road within the district are sealed with asphalt and considered passable during all weather year long as of 2021. There are total 17

base transceiver station A base transceiver station (BTS) or a baseband unit (BBU) is a piece of equipment that facilitates wireless communication between user equipment (UE) and a network. UEs are devices like mobile phone A mobile phone or cell phone is a portab ...

towers in the district as of 2021. All of villages except Malinau Hilir has access to 4G within the same year. Postal and delivery companies have branches in Batu Lidung, Malinau Kota, Pelita Kanaan, and Malinau Hulu. The district is home to a cultural stage building, named Fadan Liu' Burung which was inaugurated in 2020 and is the cultural center of the regency where performances and events are held. The stage is located close to town square of the district, Pro Sehat Pelangi Intimung Square or shortened to Prosehat Square (Indonesian: ''Lapangan Prosehat'') which features several sport and exercise facilities such as jogging track and basketball court. The district is home to main stadium of the regency, Malinau Main Stadium and is home to club Persemal Malinau. There's a bus terminal located in the district which is mainly used by bus operated by

Perum DAMRI DAMRI Public Corporation (; was , ) is an Indonesian state-owned enterprises of Indonesia, state-owned bus operator. Under further development as a public company, the name DAMRI is still used as a brand mark of this state-owned company that st ...

to and from

and

Tanjung Selor Tanjung Selor is the capital of both the North Kalimantan province in Indonesia, and of the Bulungan Regency. It is among those provincial capitals in Indonesia that as of 2025 does not yet have city status, together with Mamuju in West Sula ...

References

{{Authority control Regency seats of North Kalimantan Districts of North Kalimantan Sesayap basin