Kaesong Industrial Complex

My case lead for the ICMC Case Study Conference in Greater Noida at the end of November has been accepted. I think this will be the sixth time I have visited (and once the airport was occupied and I had to miss it) (more information is availalbe at: http://www.icmc.org.in). Here is the case summary:

The border between North and South Korea is one of the most intensely contested in the world; periodic outbreaks of violence have punctuated the sixty years since the Korean Civil War was calmed by a ceasefire. The increasing inequality across the border, as the South has become a successfully developed capitalist country and the North has regressed into poverty and hunger, acts as a further stimulant to disorder. To reduce tension and promote cooperation, the South Korean government proposed various joint cross-border economic ventures, the most persistent and successful of which has been the Kaesong Industrial Complex, involving Southern capital and knowhow and Northern labour and land. The venture has been successful in terms of employment generation and production volumes but it has been bedeviled by political and managerial problems. Who are the major stakeholders in this case and how should success for them be measured?

Keywords: cross-border ventures, Kaesong Industrial Complex, Korea, stakeholders

Ital-Thai Development Co. Ltd.

I am off in a few minutes to New Delhi and then Greater Noida in Uttar Pradesh to attent the 2012 version of ICMC – this year I am going to describe my case study concerning Ital-Thai Development Co. Ltd. and Dawei Special Economic Zone. This is part of an annual (or nearly annual, I couldn’t go when the airports were occupied) trip to India which has yielded six book chapters, four journal publications, membership of various editorial boards, my role as Regional Editor at Emerald’s Emerging Market Case Studies Collection, as well as the contract for one of the books I am currently working on and hoping to complete before the end of the year – not to mention the various contacts I have made there and friendships made. This is 2012′s case study summary:

Summary

The Dawei Industrial Estate is one of the principal means by which the newly-opening Burmese [Myanmarese] economy will engage with the world. It is being constructed largely by Ital-Thai Development (ITD), a company which has been involved with various controversies in large-scale infrastructure projects. Dawei faces concerns over forcible evictions and environmental concerns: how does ITD deal with these issues?

Greater Noida

ICMC this year was held at Greater Noida in Uttar Pradesh, a different location from before and associated with Birla Institute of Management Technology (BIMTECH).

Greater Noida itself is one of the new ‘townships’ (as it was described to me) which is aimed at drawing Delhi residents from the city limits to a pleasant suburban location – well, it is halfway to being built. There are numerous large apartment blocks which appear, from the outside at least, to be nearly ready for moving in (a photo of one such follows).

If you have read Aravind Adiga’s The White Tiger, which is based on nearby Gurgaon (at least in part), then you will have a good idea of what the neighbourhood is supposed to be like. There is a half-finished public school but I did not see any retail outlets or employment opportunities. I imagine that residences will contain maid quarters and there may be small retail outlets at the bottom and behind the apartment blocks just as there was in the similar blocks in Abu Dhabi – although people I spoke to thought this was unlikely to be the case.

In any case, it is difficult to imagine that this would be a vibrant community – it is far enough away from anywhere that private car will be necessary to go to work or shopping or any leisure or civic insitution and no space seems to have been provided to encourage communal living and entertaining.

However, a lot of money is being invested there – just down the road is the F1 circuit and attendant folderol as well as the Export Exhibition Centre. The hotel I stayed in is currently pretty much in the middle of a not-very-picturesque industrial estate, although not far down the  road someone is building ‘India’s first five-star tourist destination’ (photo below).

This time next year, then, all of this stuff should be open and we will see how it works. Unfortunately, this year I was unable to get to any shopping centres or department stores or, indeed, much else at all. Never mind, eh.

As for those people who used to live in this part of Noida before  it was reinvented as Greater Noida, I noticed in the local paper that protests were being mounted by farmers (this is considered to be very good agricultural land) about their being moved off the land, although I did receive other reports suggesting that those involved had been in fact well compensated for their land but had spent all their money – spent their money foolishly was the implication.

If I learn more about the situation, I will be sure to let the world know about it.

Okhna Mong Port Co. Ltd.

I am off on Wednesday morning for my annual trip to New Delhi for the Case Management Conference, which this year is based at Greater Noida. The abstract is below:

Okhna Mong Port Co. Ltd.

Type of Case: Teaching

Focus of Case: the business-government relationship, globalization of emerging economies, ethics of investment

Abstract: Okhna Mong Port Co. Ltd. is part of Cambodia’s Mong Reththy Group and was created in 2002 to develop some 64 hectares of land in the southwest of the country as a private sector port, integrated with special economic zone, resort area and other facilities. Cambodia has been moving towards the factory age or the East Asian Economic Model, in which low labour costs provide competitiveness for large-scale manufacturing of mostly low value-added products primarily aimed at exporting. Clearly, an efficient port and attendant infrastructure will be of great assistance in promoting industrialization of the country. Further, infrastructure is an enabling technology that should provide benefits to anyone who wishes to take advantage of it, from individuals right up to the largest corporations. However, there is some concern that making this vital part of the country’ economic development solely part of the private sector is a form of the new enclosure of the commons and that, since it will reduce the role and effectiveness of state agencies within its confines, workers’ rights and protections will be compromised. This case study uses thick description of the Cambodian market, in the context of Mekong Region industrialisation more generally, to analyse the extent to which infrastructure provision is likely to benefit the country as a whole, the equitable distribution of new income opportunities and the social development of the country. Students will be asked to consider whether the existing public-private relationship may be considered to be optimal and what alternatives might be suggested. Additionally, they will be encouraged to debate the various routes to economic development and which of these should be chosen both by Cambodia and by other countries facing the same developmental goals.

Keywords: Cambodia, infrastructure, corruption, economic development, government

I will probably be out of contact for a few days during the conference but will be back home on Sunday. Monday is a holiday and Father’s Day (it’s the King’s Birthday) and back in the office on Tuesday.

Incidentally, sometimes it is spelt ‘Okhna’ and sometimes ‘Oknha.’