Embedded Co-Operation in the Context of Singapore's Investment Enclaves in Indonesia and Vietnam: A Strategy Reconsidered

Regional industrial development projects - development packages assembled, administered and promoted by consortia of sovereign national governments - are new players in the global competition for foreign investments. Singapore's flagship projects in China have received much attention. Our paper reports on Singapore's lesser-known projects in Indonesia and Vietnam. The strategic intent of these transborder industrialization initiatives is to set in place a configuration for the city-state to restructure its domestic industries, and yet retain important linkages with production centers in low-cost environments. The effectiveness of this stratagem is evaluated from the perspectives of the tenant-firms, as well as from Singapore's broader regionalization initiative. Our study finds that this policy gambit remains stymied by non-economic, socio-political complexities in the host environments.