Extending Economic Boundaries and Exporting Expertise: New Evidence on Singapore's Gambit in Indonesia, Vietnam and India

Abstract

Singapore's regionalization stratagem led to the establishment of industrial parks in China, India and several South-East Asian countries. The strategic intent behind these overseas projects was twofold: exporting Singapore's competencies such as management knowhow, technological capabilities and corrupt-free administration to regions where such positive factors were lacking and secondly, exploiting comparative advantages that each region had to offer. This paper 1 revisits Singapore's flagship projects in Indonesia, Vietnam and India. Evidence from on-site surveys and interviews are presented. This paper contends that progress in these privileged investment zones remains stymied by particular dependencies and challenges in the host environments.

The evolution of the electronics industry in Johor (Malaysia): Strategic coupling, adaptiveness, adaptation, and the role of agency

“…There is a sizeable literature on this strategy (How and Yeoh, 2007;Pereira, 2004;Yeoh et al, 2000Yeoh et al, , 2004aYeoh and Wong, 2005a,b;Yeoh and Wong, 2006), highlighting three aspects. The first is the state's assistance in producing a 'spatial fix' to offset rising costs through the creation of new economic spaces in the form of industrial parks in the nearby region.…”