By Kazi Mahmood, IOL Southeast Asia Correspondent

KUALA LUMPUR, August 29 (IslamOnline) - Sidewalk business, however small it can be in capital investment, is thriving in most of the South East Asian Countries (ASEAN) but not all them authorities are happy with its proliferation, IslamOnline reports from Kuala Lumpur on Thursday.

In Kuala Lumpur, the municipal authorities recently started a drive to regulate illegal sidewalk businesses. It altogether enforced rules that covers sidewalk business by providing specific lots to regular and registered vendors.

The Jalan Melayu in Kuala Lumpur is one of the most famous street with its lot of sidewalk vendors displaying a variety of goods that satisfies the tastes of almost everybody.

The sidewalk lots ends in Jalan Masjid India, with the vendors displaying their licenses granted by the Datuk Bandar or Mayor of the Kuala Lumpur Federal Territory.

Tourists and visitors from other states are attracted with the products displayed. They range from traditional Malay sexual enhancement products for men and women to locally produced beauty products and fake Mont Blanc pen and Rolex watches from China.

“The vendors sometimes creates problems among themselves. Non-registered vendors would take the spots rented by registered vendors and this ends up in a big quarrel,” a city official told IslamOnline.

He added that the drive to regulate the vendors and to allocate more lots to new vendors should dampen the risks of violent outbursts in the locality.

“Malaysia is a peaceful country, everyone will have their chance to do business,” he said to two vendors who were indeed fighting over a specific lot.

In contrast to Kuala Lumpur, the city government of Manila has declared this week, its territory off limits to sidewalk vendors IslamOnline was told in an email exchange with a street vendor.

The vendor who sells sexual enhancement products made in the Philippines said he was asked to leave his regular spot for a specific allotted area in Manila.

The Philippine Star newspaper recently reported that the authorities had decided to launch a campaign to clear the sidewalks of the metropolis.

The Manila mayor however pointed out that the city has its own successful program that deals with vendors, Philstar wrote.

Instead of driving away sidewalk vendors, the Mayor Atienza has allowed them to continue with their trade by designating certain areas as informal market places, confirming the vendors email.

The city government of Manila had earlier insisted that illegal vendors should not be tolerated and that all of the sidewalks in Metro Manila should be cleared.

Enforcement is still going on and this could damage the businesses of hundreds of small business owners who are fighting unemployment by selling goods on the sidewalk, IslamOnline was told.

Tourists are the biggest attraction for local products sold at very low prices on sidewalks, the source told IslamOnline. “Many of the tourists are from the United States, Malaysia and Singapore…” the email said.

The city government, which is separated from the Mayor’s office, has already sparked a lot of controversy with the campaign, from urban poor groups to politicians denouncing these methods.

Manila has one of the Metro Manila’s largest population of sidewalk vendors in the Divisoria and Binondo areas.

While in the Philippines and in Singapore the vendors are provided with uniformly designed stalls, in Malaysia and Indonesia it is not the case.

The vendors come with their own home made or locally manufactured tents and huge parasols under which their products are displayed.

Singapore has very specific rules for sidewalk vendors. In fact they do not really exist since they are all confined to specific locations, the most popular areas being Geylang and China Town near the Bugis Junction at Victoria street.

These streets are the most popular sidewalk areas for European, American and Australian as well as Malaysian and other South East Asian tourists who can be seen in dozens busy foraging around.

Sidewalk business has helped many retrenched and unemployed people in these countries. In Malaysia it is a vividly growing trend and more quarrels are expected with the coming months of Ramadhan being the target months for most of the illegal and unregistered vendors, a city official told IslamOnline.

He said these vendors will be given their chance to sell their products but there will be inevitable raids by city officials to ensure that rules are followed.