Thailand's automotive manufacturing corridor

Arbeitspapier

Thailand's export-oriented automotive industry is a recognized economic success story. How did it happen and what lessons might other countries draw? This paper argues that the success of the industry was based on three factors. First was the substantial public investment in port facilities and related infrastructure, beginning in the 1990s, that constituted the Eastern Seaboard economic corridor. Second was the exchange rate depreciation that followed the 1997-1999 Asian Financial Crisis, making manufacturing production for export more profitable. The third factor was two key policy changes adopted by the Thai government shortly after the crisis, and partly in response to it: (a) abolition of restrictions on foreign ownership and (b) abolition of local content requirements. Neighboring countries, including Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines, also experienced the crisis and were potential competitors in attracting foreign investment in automotive production for export. But they did not adopt these two key reforms.

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• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: ADB Economics Working Paper Series ; No. 519

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Empirical Studies of Trade ; Automobiles; Other Transportation Equipment; Related Parts and Equipment ; Economic Development: Urban, Rural, Regional, and Transportation Analysis; Housing; Infrastructure ; Development Planning and Policy: Trade Policy; Factor Movement; Foreign Exchange Policy
• Subject: automotive exports ; Eastern Seaboard scheme ; final assembly ; parts and components ; Thailand

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Warr, Peter George ; Kohpaiboon, Archanun
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Asian Development Bank (ADB)
• (where): Manila
• (when): 2017

Further information

• DOI: doi:10.22617/WPS189284-2
• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/203404