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Francis E. Hutchinson
Francis E. Hutchinson is a Senior Fellow and Co-ordinator of the Regional Economic Studies and Malaysia Studies Programmes at the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute. He holds an MA in Social and Political Sciences from the University of Cambridge, MPhil in Development Studies from the University of Sussex, and a PhD in Public Policy and Administration from the Australian National University.Dr Hutchinson’s research interests include state-business relations, industrialization, innovation, global value chains, local economic development, federalism, and decentralization. He has carried out applied research for the World Bank, UNDP, UNICEF, UNESCO, and the Australian International Aid Agency, as well as political risk consultancy firms such as Oxford Analytica. Dr Hutchinson is the Managing Editor of the Journal of Southeast Asian Economies, and is the author of Mirror Images in Different Frames? Johor, the Riau Islands, and Competition for Investment from Singapore (ISEAS, 2015), and co-editor of Asia and the Middle Income Trap (Routledge, 2016). He has also published in GeoForum, GeoJournal, Journal of Contemporary Asia, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, Asian Journal of Political Science, Economic and Political Weekly, and Southeast Asian Affairs.
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• The Sultan of Johor, Ibrahim Ismail, is arguably the most visible of the country’s rulers at present. Since ascending to the throne in 2010, he has constructed a prominent media profile and been active in many areas of policy-making. He reinstated the Islamic week, suggested expanding the role of the Johor Military Force, and promoted a unique state identity. Planned initiatives by him include a Bank of Johor, a large-scale low-cost housing scheme, as well as a maglev train linking the eastern and western parts of the state’s southern coast.
• Sultan Ibrahim Ismail has also weighed in on national-level issues, such as the quality of national education and bilateral relations with Singapore.
• While the more ceremonial aspects of his actions are inspired by the pivotal role traditionally played by Malay rulers, the more operational aspects hark back to the colonial era when Johor had a reputation for modern administration, well-developed infrastructure, and a high degree of autonomy.
• At its core, the Sultan raises questions about Malay leadership, and may revive a long-standing contest between the rulers and the political elite, sometimes referred to as a battle between “princes and politicians”.
Now, however, the situation is markedly different. The Malaysian government and its Johorean equivalent have pursued closer integration with Singapore. The Indonesian central government has been promoting special economic zones and export-oriented activities. However, the Riau Islands provincial government is promoting traditional economic activities such as fishing and small-scale farming.
This development is counter-intuitive. Traditional fiscal federalism theory argues that decentralization encourages competition between provinces for investment, jobs, and growth. While Indonesia has undergone one of the world’s most far-reaching decentralization reforms, Malaysia has pursued a consistent centralization campaign. Thus, we would expect the Riau Islands’ entrepreneurial drive to be unleashed, and Johor’s to be smothered. However, Johor’s drive for capital is undiminished, while the Riau Islands’ pursuit of investment has dissipated. This monograph will explore the reasons for this paradox.
Despite this increasingly challenging environment, there is little research on what sub-national governments can or should do to catalyze the development of their economies. Focussing on the electronics sector, this book draws together ten cases of promising states or provinces largely, but not exclusively, from Asia. These dynamic regions have managed to outcompete the primary economic and political centres of power in their countries and are negotiating their own entry into one of the most challenging and demanding sectors. In exploring the issues of agency, autonomy, and state-business relations at the sub-national level, this book aims to shed light on a vital, but overlooked topic.
This book sets outs the conceptual underpinnings of the Middle-Income Trap and explores the various ways it can be defined. It also focuses on the debate surrounding the Middle-Income Trap which questions the appropriate institutional and policy settings for middle-income countries to enable them to continue past the easy phase of economic growth. The book engages with this debate by investigating the role of institutions, human capital, and trade policy in helping countries increase their income levels and by highlighting factors which enable the shift to higher and qualitatively better growth. It questions how the large emerging economies in Asia such as China, Indonesia, and India are currently grappling with the challenges of transitioning from labour-intensive to technology- and knowledge-intensive production, and discusses what can be learnt from the countries that have been able to escape the trap to attain high-income status.
Providing a conceptual framework for the Middle-Income Trap, this book will be of interest to students and scholars of Asian Economics, Comparative Economics and Asian Studies.
Initially economic in nature, the interactions between Singapore, Johor, and the Riau Islands have multiplied and grown deeper. Today, people cross the borders to work, go to school, or avail of an increasing range of goods and services. New political, social, and cultural phenomena have developed. Policy-makers in the various territories now need to reconcile economic imperatives and issues of identity and sovereignty. Enabled by their proximity and increasing opportunities, families have also begun to straddle borders, with resulting questions about citizenship and belonging.
Using the Cross-Border Region framework – which seeks to analyse these three territories as one entity simultaneously divided and bound together by its borders – this book brings together scholars from a range of disciplines. Its 18 chapters and more than 20 maps examine the interaction between Singapore, Johor, and the Riau Islands over the past quarter-century, and seek to shed light on how these territories could develop in the future.