Re-Engineering Economic Space: The Case of Singapore’s Transborder Industrialization “Gambits” in Asia

Caroline Yeoh
Singapore Management University
Wilfred How
Singapore Management University
Victor Sim
Singapore Management University 

ABSTRACT

The exportability of Singapore’s industrial-development model to other Asian environments has been one of the hallmarks of the city-state’s regionalization program, together with the state-led, market-driven intervention that has underscored the citystate’s development strategies. The paper presents an empirical analysis on the portability of this transborder industrialization strategy, and contributes new insights to the discourse on state-enterprise networks in promulgating transnational entrepreneurialventures. Empirical evidence from on-site surveys and interviews in Indonesia, China, Vietnam and India will be presented. Our study concludes that, while the calculated, schematised efforts have been remarkable, this attempt at re-engineering economic space beyond the city-state has not fully accounted for the intricacies of either economic, or socio-political, realities in the host environments.

Key Words: Singapore, Regionalization, Transborder Industrialization, State-Enterprise Networks