Location of TNCs and Evolution of Industrial Districts as Global Cities : Potentiality of the World/Global City Studies on Southeast Asian Cities

Over the last two decades, accompanying the rapid development of transnational corporations (TNCs), globalization of economic activities has made a strong impact on cities not only in developed countries, but also in developing ones. The World/Global City studies have devoted themselves to evolving a comprehensive understanding of cities under globalization, mainly in developed countries, since the 1980s. This paper outlines some perspectives on cities in developed countries within the framework of World/Global City studies, and discusses the issues and significance of applying that framework to ""mega-cities"" in Southeast Asia. The studies are divided two domains according to their perspectives on relations between cities and TNCs, who are some of the main actors in globalization. On the one hand, the World City study primarily focuses on rating cities as world cities by the number of established headquarters and regional headquarters. This implies that a world city is a base point for controlling and coordinating the New International Division of Labor (NIDL), which was initially mapped by Hymer. On the other hand, the Global City study, which is represented by Sassen, considers the ""production"" process of specialized services consequent upon interactions between firms and the agglomeration of producers in the service industry. It means that a global city is not a base point but a geographical place, such as an industrial district. Perspectives of the global city are conscious of linkages among firms within a city and the dynamics that affect the position of networks of industrial districts and hierarchy of urban systems. In Southeast Asia, we have witnessed emerging cities where major TNCs have been concentrating since the latter half of 1980s. TNC-owned manufacturing plants have been appearing in industrial parks on the outskirts of cities, whereas their commercial arms have agglomerated at city centers where office towers are being, or have been, built. These TNC locations reflect on urban structures andアジア工業化の新展開と大都市開発 : 南アジア研究者と東南アジア研究者の対話を目指し

Regional Initiatives and Operations of ICT Service Companies in Dehradun, the Capital City of Uttarakhand

This paper takes a close look at the factors that led to the expansion of India’s ICT service industry into second-and third-tier cities in northern India. The following two points will be considered. The first is regarding the industrial development policies for the ICT service industry by the Uttarakhand state government. The second is the actual operations of ICT service companies located in Dehradun. Examination of these points will clarify a facet of the current conditions of industry development within the spatial structure of northern India, which have relatively monopole concentration to the National Capital Region of Delhi, as well as uncover new issues that manifested under the state’s autonomy with industrial developments

The Placement of International Procurement Offices in Singapore by Japanese Electronics Firms and the Consequent Specialization of the Purchasing Function

In order to understand the emerging process of office agglomeration propelled by transnational corporations in Singapore, it is important to pay attention to the transactions between buyers and suppliers. This paper aims to clarify how and why Japanese electronics firms have allocated International Procurement Offices (IPOs) to Singapore, and to demonstrate the buyer-supplier relations through IPOs. Japanese firms, responding to the appreciation of the yen against the dollar and the deregulation of trade and investment, have distributed plants more intensively among Southeast Asian countries since the mid-1980s. These firms have also relocated the purchasing functions from Japan to these countries for the purpose of providing parts and components for those plants. The main intention behind the relocation was to reduce the risk of foreign-exchange loss in the region where the key currency was the dollar. It should also be noted that the lower price of parts and components in the region was another inducement. However, from the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s, Japanese firms rarely installed their purchasing functions in the plants in the region, instead deciding to establish IPOs independently in Singapore. This was because most Southeast Asian countries, unlike Singapore, had insufficient industrial infrastructure at that time. In addition, the agglomeration of suppliers in Singapore, not only consisted of those factories but also of sales offices, and this was an important factor for firms deciding on the location of their IPOs. Nevertheless, these firms' plants have become able to purchase customized parts and components such as chassis and mechanical components since the mid-1990s because of the improving basic structure of industries in Malaysia, Thailand, and so on. Along with this progress, Japanese firms began to move this kind of purchasing function out of Singapore and incorporate it into plants in other Southeast Asian countries. However, the function of purchasing standardized parts like electronic parts

Regional Incentives and the Quality of Investments of ICT Service Industries in Indian Non-Metropolitan Regions : the Experience of Dehradun, the Capital City of Uttarakhand <Research Note>

「サービス輸出」を基調として成長してきたインド情報通信技術産業(以下,ICTサービス産業)については,その大都市圏への集積が注目されてきた。しかし,既存集積地での立地にかかわる費用増大と相まって,当該産業は地方都市を新たな立地点とした成長も模索しはじめている。また,大都市圏を持たないインド各州では,州政府が当該産業誘致を梃子に産業開発を試みるようになってきた。そのため,ICTサービス産業立地が起動させる空間的ダイナミズムを理解するためには,インド国外とインド大都市圏との関係だけでなく,非大都市圏をも包含した議論が必要となってきた。しかしながら,非大都市圏にあるインド地方都市へのICTサービス産業立地について,その特徴を論じるための具体的な材料は乏しい。そこで本研究では,北インドに位置するウッタラーカンド州都デヘラードゥーンにおけるICTサービス産業立地の現状を明らかにする。This article has two principal aims. The first is to represent the development policy for ICT service industries of the Sate of Uttarakhand, a newly constituted state in Northern India after being separated from Uttar Pradesh in 2000. The second aim is to explore in detail the quality of investments and the business operations of ICT service industry in Dehradun, the capital city of Uttarakhand. Until recently, researches on the service and export-led ICT industry in India have been devoted to metropolitan regions where the industry agglomerated such as Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai, Mumbai and National Capital Region (NCR). However, in order to break up the external diseconomy of the agglomerations and to enhance cost advantage under the competitions among emerging countries, ICT industry has begun to explore alternative locations and extend its trans-regional networks to non-metropolitan regions within India. Meanwhile, given the reconfiguration of spatial distribution of the industry in India, the state governments have launched new industry policies in order to attract the ICT industries diffusing from the metropolises and to create job opportunities for educated young people. The state government of Uttarakhand launched the ICT policy with fiscal subsidies and a development of industrial park in 2006 for attracting and rooting investments from the NCR. Nevertheless the infrastructure is still generally poor and slow due to the lack of "institutional thickness" and ambiguous initiatives of the state government. On the contrary, the NCR-based BPO companies are making substantial investments in their infrastructure and the increase of employee in Dehradun in order to enhance cost-advantage. The growth of low-value added operations depends on the ability of young and crude labor pool in the region. It can be reasserted that the industries devoted to exploit basically cost differences between the NCR and its peripheral state

ICT Industries and Multi-layer Development of Industnal District in Bangalore, India <Article>

The purpose of this report is to unpack the agglomeration of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Industries based in Bangalore, the city known as the "Silicon Valley of India" and as it is the destination of TNCs and major Indian companies. In this research, the company directory published in Bangalore 2004 is used as a database for statistical analysis, which is reinforced with the author's directed field researches in Bangalore, in December 2002 and 2005. It became clear that the agglomeration of ICT industries is composed of TNCs, major Indian companies, and many diverse small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs). Moreover, it is most important to emphasize that not only the SMEs established in India but the NRI (Non-Resident Indian) type SMEs, which establish headquarters in advanced nations that are comprised in the agglomeration. There are also cases where many SMEs are not the subcontractors of both the TNCs and the major Indian companies within the agglomeration that are managing business with oversea clients. However, SMEs convert the reserved knowledge by dealing with companies in advanced countries that are developing links with the TNCs and Indian companies in India. Needless to say, SMEs oriented to the Indian domestic markets from the beginning are extending their business in Bangalore. Consequently, it is characterized that the agglomeration of ICT industries is oriented to export their services. However, upon dissection, many diverse firms are developing businesses not as subcontractors. In other words, multi-layer industrial districts have developed hybrid conditions. It is expected that the conditions and operations of respective firms give dynamism to the industrial agglomeration in Bangalore