and Muruts mainly practice Christianity though some of them are Muslim. Malaysian Chinese are mainly Buddhists though some are Taoist or Christians. There is a small number of Hindus, Sikhs, Animists, and secularists in the town. The majority of non-citizens are Muslims, though some are Christian Indonesian who are mainly ethnic Florenese and Timorese who arrived since the 1950s. A small number of Pakistanis lives in the town, mainly working as shop or restaurant owners. Most non-citizens work and live in the plantations. Some of the migrant workers have been naturalised as Malaysian citizens. However, there are still many who live without proper documentation as illegal immigrants in the town with their own unlawful settlement. Languages The people of Tawau mainly speak Malay, with a distinct Sabahan creole. The Tawau creole shared many similarities with East Coast Sabahan Dialect and Bahasa Indonesia spoken in North Kalimantan across the border. As most Tawau Chinese are Hakka Chinese, Hakka Chinese is widely spoken. Tawau Chinese also use other Chinese dialect languages like Cantonese, Hokkien, Teochew, Hainan, and other minority dialect language. The east coast Bajau's language has similarities with the Sama language in the Philippines and Kalimantan; and has borrowed words from the Suluk language. The Bajau language on the east coast is different from the west coast Bajau, where the language has been influenced by Malayic languages from Brunei Malay. Economy As of 1993, there were 40 timber-processing plants and a number of sawmills. Tawau Port is a major export and import gateway for timber especially from North Kalimantan. A barter trade has been formalised between East Kalimantan (now North Kalimantan) and Sabah with the creation of Tawau Barter Trade Association (BATS) in 1993. The association handles the cash-based trade of raw materials from Indonesia, but in recent years has focussed on timber industry. Other than timber, since British rule ended exports have traditionally been spices, cocoa and tobacco. Birds' nests are harvested at Baturong, Sengarung, Tepadung and Madai Caves by the Ida'an community. Tawau is one of the top cocoa producers in Malaysia, and the world together with Ivory Coast, Ghana and Indonesia. The town is the cocoa capital for both in Sabah and Malaysia. Cocoa production is mostly concentrated in the interior, north of the town, while palm oil production is concentrated along the roads to Merotai, Brantian, Semporna and Kunak. Both cocoa and palm oil are part of