Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/203404 
Year of Publication: 
2017
Series/Report no.: 
ADB Economics Working Paper Series No. 519
Publisher: 
Asian Development Bank (ADB), Manila
Abstract: 
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.
Subjects: 
automotive exports
Eastern Seaboard scheme
final assembly
parts and components
Thailand
JEL: 
F14
L62
O18
O24
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Creative Commons License: 
cc-by Logo
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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