Dynamics of the Textiles & Apparel Industries in Southeast Asia : A Preliminary Analysis

The apparel industry is a representative case of a buyer-driven global value chain, as suggested by Gary Gereffi. We examine this hypothesis by focusing on the textile and apparel industries in Southeast Asian countries, especially the Philippines, Malaysia, and Thailand. We found that there are two different kinds of value chains in these industries. In one, the lead firms are engaged in chemical fiber production, and, in the other, the lead firms are engaged in fast fashion retailing. The former is a producer-driven chain and the latter is a buyer-driven chain. In Southeast Asian countries today, we find these two different chains. Japanese chemical fiber producers during the 1960s and 1970s represented the former case, and today this type is found among Indian chemical fiber producers such as Reliance Industries, the Indorama group, and the Aditya Birla group. On the other hand, US and Western European fashion retailers represent the latter case; this is especially so among Hong Kong Chinese entrepreneurs. In future, even firms in the small countries of Southeast Asia can upgrade and be fashion retailers without having fiber and textile production bases if they can develop their own designs and brands, and develop merchandizing, marketing and coordinating capabilities and skills

Economic Activities of Indian Business Groups in Thailand : Continuity and Discontinuity

The economic activities of Indian business groups in Thailand have a long history. If we examine the establishment of representative Indian business groups in Thailand chronologically, the Diwanchand Group comes first, followed by the GP Group, Indorama Group, Adithya Birla Group, and Tata Group. Shivnath Rai Bajaj, who leads the Diwanchand Kundanlal Group, and Kirt Shah, who leads the GP Group, are PIO (Persons of Indian Origin). On the other hand, A. P. Lohia, who leads the Indorama Group, and S. S. Mahansaria and Deepak Mittal, who head the Adithya Birla Group, are NRIs (Non-Resident Indians). However, there is “a continuity” among these industrial groups, and the borders between PIO and NRIs are not closed. The inroads into Thailand made by the Tata Group symbolize the phenomenon of the “Rising New India.” Today, the central location of the Indian business groups in Bangkok is no longer Samphen-Pahurat (Little India) or the Ban-Kaek area; it is Sukhumvit. The Thai-Bharat Cultural Lodge, an association with a long history, has become fairly desolate today. This locational change of the main business activities of Indians in Bangkok is the most remarkable phenomenon that differs from the situation in the 1980s

Proceedings of ICES 2015 International Conference : Asian Economy at the Crossroad : China, India, and ASEAN

There are conflicting views on the impact of political conflict on economic relations from the literature of international political economics. We use quarterly data to investigate the effects of political relation on export flows between China and certain countries in East Asia from 1980 to 2013 while controlling the role of the economic power of China. The results suggest that the political relations between China and East Asia countries impact their trade volume significantly which supports the traditional view of "trade following flag". We also find that China’s economic power decreases the impact of political relations on the bilateral trades. However, the interaction among political relations, trade flows, and China economic power varies for the periods before and after the 2008 financial crisis