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State-Led Transborder Industrialization In Asia: A Note On Singapore's Manufacturing Enclaves In Vietnam And China, Caroline Yeoh, Wilfred Pow Ngee How

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Singapore-based firms to expand into the region, remain controversial. This strategic initiative is promulgated on the exportability of Singapore’s state credibility, systemic and operational efficiencies as well as technological competencies, to locations where these attributes are less distinct. We present evidence culled from surveys and interviews conducted in the Singapore-styled industrial townships in Vietnam and China. Our results suggest that, while the parks have arguably been a measured success, the advantages supposedly created by the abovementioned export of Singapore’s competencies have proven either illusionary or far less significant than originally envisioned, vis-à-vis more practical economic and competitive concerns.