Entrepreneurial Skills among Chinese Traders and Iban Clients : Boat Trade in Batang Lupar Sarawak

Chinese have played an important role in the establishment of bazaars and tOwn ship sin many rural areas of sarawak. They are perceived as more successful as entrepreneurs because of their hardworking, risk taking and frugal characteristics. However,they are not the only one having such characteristics this paper discusses the entrepreneurial skills owned by the lban in Batang Lupar,Sarawak during boat trade activities with Chinese boat hawkers.Memory and perception of boat hawkers during the trading and negotiation process Offer an important insight into the trading skills of their indigenous.counterparts. Fieldwork for this research pr9ject20 is sti‖ ongoing and the discussion provided is far frorn conclLISiVe.Hovvever,it is envisaged that the preliminary finding could shed some attention onto the motivation, social structures, partnerships of the lban communities that promOte the entrepreneurial drive and skills which is of equivalent with their Chinese neighbours.