Thailand
Thailand is our primary case of successful extensive development. The impressive volume of Thai-based automotive assembly and vehicle and parts exports, the largest in the ASEAN region, reflects a highly efficient assembly base, dominated by foreign assemblers and component producers and driven largely by growth of capital stock rather than by indigenous productivity. This trajectory has been the result of deliberate policy interventions, such as automotive FDI incentives, excise taxes and tariffs designed to promote scale economies, and cluster-related infrastructure. These policies have been formulated and implemented by relatively cohesive institutional networks motivated by broader economic concerns, especially foreign exchange problems. Yet those same factors have not resulted in intensive growth: a manufacturing complex based at least in part on domestic firms producing parts and components, providing intermediate and capital goods, improving processes, and participating in product design.