Towards a new division of labour in Southeast Asia: Indonesian and Thai Industrial policy and the electric vehicle value chain in ASEAN

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Abstract:

Amidst changes that signify a transition in the automotive industry’s dominant design, vehicle manufacturing nations seek to secure their positions within the industry’s global value chain for the post-transition era. This investigation will focus on Thailand and Indonesia, ASEAN’s two leading vehicle producers. While both countries have a shared objective, they employ different policies towards this objective. Thus, their cases are relevant cases to understand the role of industrial policy in this transition process. This investigation aims to understand how developing countries, which are significant vehicle producers, seek to manage this transition, which is directed by lead firms located in developed countries and China. This research question is relevant as developing countries (including China) today account for the lion’s share of global vehicle output, but apart from China, there is little scholarly attention to the question how a complex socio-economic and socio-technical transition is managed via public policies in Asia. Copyright © The Author(s) 2024. Published by Inderscience Publishers Ltd.