South East Asian neighbors Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia are planning to create an economic triangle in order to achieve a competitive edge to compete with India and China. Notwithstanding the competitive heat of rapidly growing Asian economies such as China and India and disturbed by the rapid pace of South East Asia’s economic integration, the three are trying to take efforts for their own economic development and progress.
Indonesia has recently formed a special economic zone on the Riau islands, which is strategically located between Singapore and Indonesia. Malaysia, on the other hand, is planning to develop industry in the southern state near Singapore which can be dubbed as a multi-billion-dollar plan. This plan will immensely benefit land and labor strapped Singapore after witnessing years of robust economic growth. The plan would give Singapore access to cheap labor and land on its boundaries.
The primary objective of the plan is to attract foreign investment and preventing it from heading towards India and china. In addition to it, the other objective of the plan is to encourage their domestic firms to expand in the neighborhood rather than elsewhere.
However, these neighbors have a history of internal strife and the questions pertaining to land, boundaries, workers and water have been the major issue of contention. Investors till now have neglected Malaysia and Indonesia for investment purposes due their history of unstable policies and corruption. However, now moving ahead with the plan both the countries hope to attract major investment, to some extent enticed by the proximity of efficient infrastructure and financial services of Singapore.
