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Globalisation and urban transformations in the Asia-Pacific region: A review

Fu-chen Lo; Peter J Marcotullio


Urban Studies; Jan 2000; 37, 1; Academic Research Library
pg. 77

Urban Studies, Vol. 37, No. t, 77-111, 2000

Globalisation and Urban Transformations in the


Asia-Pacific Region: A Review
Fu-chen Lo and Peter J. Marcotullio
f Paper firs/ received. March 1998; in final form, J1111e 1999/

Summary.
In the Asia-Pacific context, over the past several decades, economic globalisation
permitted the deepening of intrafirm trade, foreign direct investment and the division of labour
between head offices and their subsidiaries abroad, thus effecting a greater interdependency
between the developed nations and developing nations in the region. The linkages of this
emerging transnational economy are embedded in the region's cities through the world city
formation process and have led to the development of a 'functional city system'. Urban functions,
within the system include, inter alia, production, finance, telecommunications, transportation,
direct investment and even amenity provision. The accumulation of different functions by a given
city provides for the foundation of its external linkage and economic growth and also underlies
transformations in its physical form. While all cities have a variety of functions and play many
roles within the regional economy, dominant characteristics found in cities allow for the
identification of different types including capital export cities, regional entrepots, industrial cities
and amenity cities.

Introduction
During the past few decades, the world economy has experienced structural adjustments
affecting production, resource utilisation and
wealth creation. Cross-border functional integration of economic activities and growing
interdependency among regional economic
blocs are part of a set of processes defined as
'globalisation'. Important elements in the
evolution of the global system are the expansion of trade, capital flows (particularly direct investments) and a wave of new
technologies.
The logic of economic globalisationdriven growth has privileged some regions
and cities over others. In general, the developed world and some developing and newly

industrialised economies (NIEs) have benefited, while many developing countries have
been marginalised. Within developed countries, the centres of finance and advanced
business services as well as high-tech industries have benefited, while cities dominated
by traditional blue-collar employment have
stagnated. Among developing states, the resulting sets of economic arrangements have
benefited Asia-Pacific countries in particular
(World Bank, 1993). (The Asia-Pacific region includes those nations bordering the
South China Sea and the Western Pacific
Ocean excluding Oceania.)
Cities have become nodes in the global
web of economic flows and linkages. Until

Fu-chen lo and Peter J. Marcotullio are i11 the United Nations University Institute of Advanced Studies, 53-67 Jingumae S-cbome,
Shibuya-ku. Tokyo 150-8304, Japan. Fax: + 151-3-5467-2324.Email:lo@ias.unu.edu
and Pjmarcu@ias.unu.edu.
0042-0980 Print/ I 360-063X On-linc/00/0 I 0077-35 2000 The Editors of Urban Studies

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78

FU-CHEN LO AND PETER J. MARCOTULLIO

recently, globalisation has had a dramatic and


positive effect on cities in the Asia-Pacific
region, a result of the emergence of an industrial belt based on the location of manufacturing firms in the major metropolitan centres of
the Asian NIEs, ASEAN, China and Indochina. These cities are becoming the new
sites of global manufacturing production and
are increasingly playing a key role in economic transformations. Indeed, as the recent
financial crisis demonstrated, economic
growth and development among countries
throughout the region is highly dependent on
the international activities that take place
within its cities.
Economic growth, integration and the resultant interdependency has led to the emergence of a regional city system, called the
Asia-Pacific functional city system (Yeung
and Lo, 1996). A functional city system is
a network of cities that are linked, often in
a hierarchical manner based on a given
economic or socio-political function at the
global or regional level (Lo and Yueng,
l 996b, p. 2).
As cities articulate to this system, they undergo
a process of development commensurate with
their dominant economic roles within the set
of transnational flows. While local characteristics play an important part in mediating
globalisation processes, general patterns of
development can be discerned based upon the
intensity of the prevailing currents.
This review essay presents one understanding of urban and regional development in the
Asia-Pacific region through the lens of economic 'globalisation' and the development of
the functional city system. The first section
presents some of the elements of the globalisation process and how they have played out
within the Asia-Pacific region. The second
section describes the world city formation
process (Friedmann, 1986; Friedmann and
Wolff, 1982) as it has impacted cities in the
region. This part of the paper focuses on how
globalisation flows have influenced the
growth of major metropolitan centres in the
region. The third describes the emergence of
an Asia-Pacific urban corridor and the devel-

opment of a functional city system (Lo and


Yeung, 1996; Lo and Marcotullio, 1998). It
presents some patterns of urban development
within the city system. Lastly, the implications
of this mode of growth on the sustainability
of cities will be discussed.

Economic Globalisation
Pacific Region

and the Asia-

Globalisation "implies a degree of functional


integration between internationally dispersed
economic activities" (Dicken, 1992, p. 1 ).
Functional integration is progressing through
increased stretching (geographical widening)
and intensity (deepening) of international linkages. Evidence for the geographical scope of
the processes usually includes the locations of
nodes within the flows. The Asia-Pacific
region has its share of these points in the global
system in the form of urban centres. The
intensity of globalisation is generally given by
a number of trend indicators including trade
and financial flows, foreign direct investments
(FDI), communications (information flows)
and personal and business travel. In the AsiaPacific region, these trends have taken on a
particular character. In this section we describe
changes in the world and regional economy
through the presentation of indicators of
globalisation.
Trade and Financial Flows
World trade has been growing rapidly since
1950 (Table I). From that time to 1992, the
annual average growth rate topped 11.2 per
cent, bringing the net value of global export
trade from US$61 billion to over US$3.7
trillion (UNCT AD, 1994). However, this
growth rate is not only unprecedented, it is also
higher than that of global production. While
in 1950 merchandise exports were 7 .0 per cent
of world GDP, by 1992 global exports accounted for 13.5 per cent of total world output
(Maddison, 1995). A pre-1997 financial crisis
World Bank figure placed world merchandise
exports at 18 per cent of world GDP. No doubt,
the expansion of trade is a defining characteristic of the post-World War II global economy.

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79

GLOBALISATION AND THE ASIA-PACIFIC REGION

Table 1. Regional annual average growth rates of trade (percentages)


Region

1950--60

World

6.5

9.2

20.3

6.1

Developed market economies


North America
EC

7.1
5.1
8.4

10.0
8.7
10.2

18.8
17.0
19.3

7.8
5.9
8.3

Developing countries
South America"
Sub-Saharan Africa
South and south-east Asia

3.1
2.3
4.8
0.2

7.2
5.1
7.8
6.7

25.9
20.6
20.0
25.8

2.2
2.3
-2.0
10.8

1960-70

1970-80

1980-90

"Includes Belgium-Luxembourg, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy,


Netherlands Portugal, Spain and UK.
"lncludes Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Paraguay and Uruguay
Source: UNCTAD (1994, Tables l.5 and 1.6, pp. 16-25).
East and south-east
Asian economies
exemplify the world trend in trade (Table 2).
The regional pattern began with rapid increases in Japanese exports, was followed by
trade expansion among the Asian NIEs in the
1960s and has, up until recently, been succeeded by explosive growth rates of trade in
ASEAN countries. While it is true that the

1970s had brought growth in trade to most


countries around the world (average annual
world growth rate in trade was 20.3 per
cent), the Asian NIEs and the ASEAN countries experienced a particularly rapid expansion in their exports and imports (37.2 per
cent for Korea, 28.6 per cent for Taiwan and
28.3 per cent for ASEAN). In the 1980s,

Table 2. National annual average growth rates of trade (percentages)


Country

1950-60

1960-70

1970-80

1980-90

USA
UK
France
Germany
Australia

5.l
4.8
6.4
16.6
0.9

7.8
6.3
9.8
11.4
7.7

18.2
18.4
19.8
19.l
15.9

5.9
5.8
7.7
9.6
6.3

Japan

15.9

17.5

20.8

8.9

Korea
Hong Kong
Taiwan
Singapore

I.4
-0.4
6.5
-0.1

39.6
14.5
23.2
3.3

37.2
22.4
28.6
28.2

15.1
16.8
14.8
9.9

Malaysia
Indonesia
Thailand
Philippines

0.6
-l.l
l.5
4.5

4.3
1.7
5.9
7.5

24.2
35.9
24.7
17.5

8.6
- 1.3
14.0
3.8

19.1

1.3

20.0

12.7

-0.2
-2.0
3.4

4.8
7.2
6.0

18.0
21.7
25.7

2.1
5.1
2.4

China
Argentina
Brazil
Mexico

Source: UNCTAD (1994 Tables 1.5 and l.6, pp. 16-25).

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80

FU-CHEN LO AND PETER J. MARCOTULLIO

world trade slowed due to the fall in primary


commodity prices and a global recession in
the first part of the decade, among other
factors, but trade for countries in Asia continued to grow. The exceptions were Indonesia and the Philippines. Indonesian trade was
hard hit in the first half of the decade by the
fall in demand for its agricultural and fuel oil
products and political instability depressed
the Philippines' export trade during that period.
Japanese trade with the rest of the AsiaPacific region has been the key to both its
own success and the restructuring of many
neighbouring economies (Shinohara and Lo,
1989). Japanese exports have been increasingly directed to nations in the region. For
example, between 1975 and 1985, the value
of the Japanese products exported to Korea,
Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand increased
by 202 per cent, 226 per cent, 378 per cent,
and 121 per cent respectively (Akita et al.,
1997). By 1987, Japan's trade with the Asian
N!Es had increased so sharply that it was
roughly the same magnitude as its trade with
the 12 countries of the then European Community (Yeung and Lo, 1996). By 1996,
Japan's exports to the world amounted to
US$400.5 billion and over 45 per cent of that
went to Asia (JETRO, 1997).
Notwithstanding its magnitude and rapid
expansion, two important aspects of global
trade during the past few decades were the
growing importance of the service trade and
the growing complexity of international finance. The service sector has increasingly
become an important part of the global economy. It makes up the largest share of gross
domestic product of all but the lowestincome countries. It also accounts for an
increasing share of the gross domestic product of developed nations. By 1993, it accounted for over two-thirds of national
production in these nations (Table 3). The
national importance of the service sector is
also reflected in trade statistics. Beginning in
the 1970s, service trade internationalised and
by the 1980s service industries were growing
faster than any other sector of the world
economy. From 1986 to 1995, commercial

Table 3. Percentage share of service sector in GDP


of G7 countries, 1960-93

Country
USA

UK

France
Germany
Japan
Canada
Italy

1960

1993

58
53

75'
65

52
41
42
60
46

69

61

57
71
65

Percentage
change
1960-93
29.31

22_64
32.69
48.78
35.71
18.33

41.30

t991 figure, from Survey of Current Business,


1993Source: World Bank, World Development
Report (various years).

services trade grew at a rate of 12_5 per cent


per year, while merchandise trade grew
at a rate of 9.5 per cent per year. By 1996,
trade in commercial services was worth
US$ l .2 trillion representing 20 per cent of
total world trade (ADB, 1998). Interestingly,
in the Asia-Pacific region as a whole, the
development of manufacturing production
seems not to have been matched by a similar
level of service-sector development, possibly
because of the use of services from outside
the region
(Daniels,
1998).
However,
service-sector development in cities of the
region has had fundamental effects upon
metropolitan
structure and urban form
(Park and Nahm, 1998; Searle, 1998; Sirat,
1998)_
Another significant trade-related phenomenon has been the development of the global
finance system. While in the past, the world
finance system grew to keep the global trade
system working smoothly, the flows of global finance alone have subsequently taken on
unique importance. Peter Drucker ( 1986) has
suggested that this development represents a
separation of the 'real economy' of the production and trade of goods and services from
the 'symbol economy' of credit and financial
transactions. This separation is significant in
that each 'economy' now operates almost
independently.

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81

GLOBALISATION AND THE ASIA-PACIFIC REGION

The importance of the international finance system can be seen in the absolute size
and increases in foreign currency trade. For
example, in the mid 1980s, foreign exchange
trade exceeded US$150 billion a day, which
annually amounted to 12 times the value of
world trade in goods and services. By the late
1980s, the total was up to US$600 billion a
day, no less than 32 times the volume of
international commercial transactions worldwide (Drucker, 1986; Strange, 1994). Annual
transactions in the Eurocurrency markets
have risen from US$3 billion in the 1960s to
US$75 billion in I 970 to US$ I trillion in
1984 (Strange, 1994). These transactions
have been encouraged by access to a 24-hour
global network of capital markets concentrated in cities such as New York, London
and Tokyo (Sassen, 199l ).
The institutional structure of the emerging
global financial system contributes to its importance. Since the global financial system is
a hybrid of states and markets, it is therefore
not solely within the command of governments. As the 'symbol' and 'real' economies
have separated, the influence of global markets for money has grown and the power of
governments to influence or control these
markets has diminished. The hard lesson of
the Asian crisis is that this part of the system
is vulnerable-the 'Achilles heel' of the
global economy (Strange, 1994). As has been
demonstrated, if confidence in the system
fails, decades of achievement can be wiped
out in a relatively short period of time. The
1980s debt crises pale in significance when
compared with current events in Asia. Further, since the financial system is embedded
in international transactions, 'shocks' in one
place are quickly felt in another. While the
Mexican financial crisis raised questions
for investors and policy-makers, it was the l
997 currency and capital market crises that
pro- vided undeniable evidence of the
intercon- nected nature of the global finance
system. Within a period of days, the stock
markets of Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Hong
Kong, New York, London, Tokyo, Frankfurt,
Paris, New Zealand, Brazil, Argentina and
Mexico re- acted to the ASEAN bursting
bubble. The

current climate within the global financial


system demonstrates that, given impetus, the
reaction on the part of investors to reduce
their exposure, even in well-managed economies, can be translated quickly around the
world. As a result, in 1997, private capital
flows to the emerging markets fell by onethird, with Indonesia, Korea and Malaysia
experiencing the largest declines (ADB,
1998).
Foreign
FD/)1

Direct

Investment

Trade linkages have been strengthened


through growing cross-country manufacturing production processes facilitating intrafirm trade throughout the world and the
region. In the 1980s, transnational corporations accounted for 70-80 per cent of world
trade outside the centrally planned socialist
countries (Feagin and Smith, 1987, p. 3).2
This relationship makes FDI one of the dominating forces of global integration. The
growth of FDl has been an integral part of
the general economic growth in the world
economy (UNCT AD, 1997).
The major channel of FDI is the transnational corporation (TNC). Global TNC activity was relatively unimportant until the
late 1950s. Much of these flows were NorthSouth and were heavily concentrated in resource-based
industries,
transport
and
utilities (Graham, 1995). The total accumulated stock of foreign direct investment rose
from US$14.3 billion in 1914 to US$26.4
billion in 1938 before soaring to reach
US$66 billion at the end of the 1950s (Dunning and Archer, 1987).
Notwithstanding fluctuations, beginning in
the 1960s, FDI flows began to grow at twice
the rate of growth of world gross national
product and 40 per cent faster than world
exports. During the 1970s, total flows of FDI
on an outward basis were less than US$ l 3
billion (Graham, 1995). Then, after 1985,
world FDI flows skyrocketed. In the late
1980s, FDI inflows to countries around the
world grew at the rapid annual average
growth rate of over 24 per cent (Table 4). Jn
subsequent years, the rate of growth of FDI
more than doubled that for world trade. By

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82

FU-CHEN LO AND PETER J. MARCOTULLJO

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GLOBALISATION

83
A considerable number of TNCs from a
small number of developing countries, most
obviously some of the Asian NIEs, have
emerged. Among a list of the 1995 top 50
TNCs based in developing economies, 34 arc
home institutions of the 4 Asian NIEs and
China. These 50 firms have total assets ranging from US$1.3-40 million, total sales
ranging from US$366 000 to 36 million and
total number of employees ranging from
7434 to 200 000. Two of them are included
in the 1996 list of Top 100 global TNCs
(UNCT AD, I 997).
Jn the Asia-Pacific region, Japanese
trade grew with the importance of intrafirm
trade among Japanese companies. Many
Japanese TNCs have subsidiaries located in
the region with which they trade parts and
services. In this way, Japanese trade has
strengthened its economic linkages to developing countries in the region. Therefore
the basis for increased Japanese trade with
the Asian NIEs and ASEAN originated and
developed with Japanese FDI. In 1988, the
region's catch of Japanese FDI was 11.7
per cent in I 988 at US$5.2 billion (Yeung
and Lo, 1996).' It is the accumulation of
Japanese FDI and the transfer of knowledgebased intangible assets (for example, production technology, marketing networks,
management systems), which accompanied
these investments that have provided the
impulse for the region's growth (Hatch
and Yamamura, I 996; Lo, 1994). Two
important aspects of Asia-Pacific FDI arc
that it is largely regionally based and that the
manufacturing share dominates total FDI
flows.
The flow of intra-Asia FDI began with
Japanese industrial expansion in the 1960s.
For example, with early liberalisation of
investment regulations in Indonesia, Japan
began investing in the country. The number
of firms increased from 22 in 1967 to 48
in I 970 to 123 in 1975 (Syamwil, 1998,
Table 4). Most recently, with increased
liberalisation in China, Japanese FDI has
flooded that country. In 1994, for example,
there were 636 cases of FDI from

AND TllE ASIA-PACIHC

1996, FDI inflows had reached US$349 billion and FDI stocks reached approximately
US$3.2 trillion, rising from US$ I trillion in
1987, and the sales of TNC foreign affiliates
(US$6.4 trillion) were higher than total
world trade of goods and services (US$6. I
trillion). Cross-border production processes
reflect changes in corporate structures that
arc being pursued t.irough foreign investment
channels.
FDI has been overwhelmingly dominated
by TNCs from developed countries. The resultant investment transactions have been described as mainly limited to a 'triad'
including the EU, North America and cast
and south-cast Asia (focused on Japan) as the
dominant regional blocs (Ohmae, 1985;
UNCTAD, 1997). In I 996, 59.6 per cent of
world FDI flows were among OECD nations.
However, while transnational investment
is primarily concentrated in the developed
market economies, developing countries arc
increasingly playing an important role (Table
5). Cross-investment between the major developed market economics and developing
economics had increased substantially. The
percentage of total global FDI captured by
developing countries had increased from 18
per cent in the mid to late I 980s to over 36
per cent in I 996. Asia has received more
than 60 per cent of FDI flows to the developing world. Recently, China has captured the
role of largest recipient, accounting for a
third of all FDI flows to developing economies (ABO, 1998).
The most discernible impact of the current
financial crisis has been a sharp decline in
private capital inflows to the five affected
countries (Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia,
Korea and the Philippines). Together, they
suffered net private capital outflows of
US$12 billion in 1997, compared to net inflows of US$93 billion in 1996. However,
despite the movement of equity capital out of
the region, in 1997, FDI inflows into these
economies remained at about US$7 billion,
approximately the same as in 1996 (ABO,
1998). This may indicate that the regional
manufacturing production system has not
collapsed.

REGION

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84

FU-CHEN LO AND PETER J. MARCOTULLIO

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GLOBALISATION AND THE ASIA-PACIFIC REGION

Japan alone, slated for the Chinese mainland


(Hatch and Yamamura, 1996).
Japan has maintained a considerable investment position in the region despite its
sagging post-bubble economy. In the early
1990s, Japanese manufacturers, particularly
machine-makers, continued to invest heavily
in the Asia-Pacific. The share of Japanese
manufacturing FDI in Asia has grown from
19.8 per cent in 1990 to 32.9 per cent in 1993
while falling from 43.9 per cent to 37.2 per
cent in North America and from 29.7 per
cent to 18.3 per cent in Europe during the
same period (Fukushima and Kwan, 1995).
Japanese FDI increased sharply in Thailand
during 1993 and 1994 as Casio, Sony, Toyota and Honda expanded their production
capacities. Japanese firms also have recently
increased investments in the Philippines,
Indonesia, Malaysia and China (Hatch and
Yarnamura, 1996).
Recently intraregional non-Japanese FDI
has increased significantly. By the early
1990s, the region experienced increased investments from the Asian NIEs and ASEAN
countries. By 1994, FDI from the individual
Asian NIEs into the region was approaching
the levels of flow from Japan and in the case
of Hong Kong tripled Japanese investments.
During that year, the investments from these
countries were primarily directed at ASEAN
and China (Table 6).
The growth of manufacturing FDI was
related to changes of economic structure
within developing economies in the region.
These shifts were recorded in their export
compositions. During the period 1980-90,
manufacturers' share of exports almost
tripled from 21.8 per cent to 59.8 per cent for
all ASEAN countries. Indonesia's percentage
increase was 15.6 times, while Singapore and
Thailand also made impressive gains (Yeung
and Lo, 1996). In general, the exports from
the Asia-Pacific region increased dramatically after 1985. The four Asian NIEs and
the ASEAN countries accounted for only 9
per cent of world exports in that year, but by
1997 their share had climbed to 14 per cent.
This demonstrates the intimate relationship
between FDI and trade and the importance

85

of capital-exporting countries, like Japan,


Korea and Taiwan to the region's economic
growth.
Communication Networks
The world is in the midst of a 'revolution'
led by advanced digital technologies. Communication networks and interactive multimedia applications are providing the
foundation for the transformation of existing
social and economic relationships into an
'Information Society'. The growth of the
telecommunications industry has been dramatic. In l 994, worldwide, there were more
than 500 million connections to telephone
main lines leaving the 25 leading telecommunications companies with revenues of
US$400 billion and 38 million new subscribers. In that same year, the I 0 largest of
these companies made bigger profits than the
25 largest commercial banks (OECD, 1997).
These telecommunication
technologies
have made markets more transparent and
they continue to steer globalisation processes
as they push down prices for long-distance
transactions. A 3-minute telephone call between New York and London has fallen from
US$300 (in 1996 dollars) in 1930 to USS I in
1997 (The Economist, 1997).
The main drivers for the communications
explosion are infrastructure and new service
development. Most of this development has
been in industrialised nations. The OECD
nations retain 67 per cent of the world's
telecommunication main lines. From 1990 to
1995, OECD nations' telephone main line
provision grew at an annual rate of 3.9 per
cent. By 1995, there was an average of
47 main lines per I 00 inhabitants in these
countries. OECD cellular mobile subscribers
have increased at a compound rate of 45 per
cent per year over the same period and
now reach 71 million users. Similarly, their
numbers of Internet hosts has increased
from 0.6 million in 1991 to 12.4 million in
1996. The current diffusion rate is 12
Internet hosts per I 000 population. TV penetration per household in OECD countries is
90 per cent. In terms of installed PC base, the

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.

86

FU-CHEN LO AND PETER J_ MARCOTULUO

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GLOBALISATION

AND THE ASIA-PACIFIC

87

REGION

Table 7. Changesin telephone servicesin Asia and


selectedLatinAmericanNIEs
(main lines per 100 inhabitants)

Country

1990

1991

1992

1993

1994

Japan

44.1

45.4

46.4

47.1

48.0

Singapore
Hong Kong
Korea

39.0
43.2
31.0
2.4
0.6
8.9
1.0

39.9
45.9
33.7

41.5
48.5
35.7

43.5
51.0
37.9

47.3
54.0
39.7

2.7
0.7
10.0
1.0
0.7
0.2

3.1
0.9
11.2
1.0
1.0
0.2

3.8
1.0
12.6

4.7

9.8
6.7
7.2

11.l
6.9
8.0

Thailand
Indonesia
Malaysia
Philippines
China
Vietnam

0.6
0.2

Argentina
Brazil
Mexico

9.6
6.3

6.6

Percentage
change
1990-94

1.5
0.4

14.7
1.7
2.3
0.6

8.8
21.3
25.0
28.1
95.8
116.7
65.2
70.0
283.3
200.0

12.2
7.4
8.8

14.1
8.1
9.3

46.9
28.6
40.9

1.3

1.3

Source: United Nations (1996, Table 19, pp. 135-144).

US averaged 30 PCs per 100 inhabitants in


1994. Europe's and Japan's penetration rates
are closer to 10 PCs per 100 inhabitants
(OECD, 1997).
In general, developing countries have
lower levels of telecommunications infrastructure development. Low-income economies in the world have an average of 1.97 main
lines per 100 inhabitants. The lower middleincome economies have 9.17 main lines per
100 inhabitants (OECD, 1997). In parts of
developing Asia, however, telecommunications advances are progressing at increasingly advanced rates. In terms of telephone
hook-ups, developing nations in Pacific Asia
have increased their connectivity at a faster
rate than either Japan or Latin American
NIEs (Table 7). Between 1990 and 1994, the
number of main lines per 100 inhabitants
quadrupled in China, tripled in Vietnam and
doubled in Thailand and Indonesia. The percentage ownership of TVs and radios is increasing much faster in these developing
countries than in other developing nations
(Table 8). Further, liberalised markets in
Hong Kong, China, Singapore, Japan,
Malaysia and Indonesia for telecommunications firms are having dramatic impacts on

not only hook-ups, but cellular phone and


Internet services (FEER, 1998).
Transport Linkages
While the major breakthroughs in the transport of goods and services occurred in the
19th and early 20th centuries, modern enhancements-such as large cargo freighters
and jumbo jets-have continued to improve
the movement of people, goods and services.
Since 1980, the number of scheduled international passengers globally has doubled
(Table 9).
More importantly, the expansion and development of commercial high-speed passenger transport have allowed for a rise of
annual distance travelled with personal income. That is, while people from different
classes and societies are spending the same
average amount of time travelling per day,
those with higher incomes are travelling farther." Thus, as world GDP per person has
increased, so has total person kilometre miles
(PKM). For example, total PKM travelled
has increased more than fourfold from 5.5
trillion PKM in 1960 to 23.4 trillion PKM in
1990 and is expected to more than double by

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.

88

FU-CHEN LO AND PETER 1. MARCOTULLIO

Table 8. Television and radio receivers (per 1000


persons)
Percentage change

1980-93

Country

1980

1985

1990

1993

Radio

34.4

Japan

TV
Radio

539
678

579
786

611
899

618
911

Singapore

TV
Radio
TV
Radio
TV
Radio

311
373
221
506
165
525
21
140
20
99
87
411
22
43
4
55

332
606
234
596
189
946
81
156
38
128
115
421
27
91
9
112
33
100
214
594
185
363
113
199

377
636
272
666
210
1011
106
185
57
145
148
429

381
644
286
671
215
1013
113
189
62
148
151
430
47
143
38
184
42
104
220
672
209
390
150
255

Hong Kong
Korea
Thailand
Indonesia
Malaysia
Philippines
China
Vietnam
Argentina
Brazil
Mexico

TV
Radio
TV
Radio
TV
Radio
TV
Radio
TV
Radio
TV
Radio
TV
Radio
TV
Radio
TV
Radio

93
183
427
124
313
57
134

44

141
30
181
39
103
218
670
207
384
146
254

72.7
32.6
93.0
35.0
49.5
4.6
232.6
234.5

TV

14.7
22.5
29.4
30.3
438.I
210.0
73.6
113.6
850.0

11.8
57.4
24.6
90.3

20.2
68.5
163.2

Source: United Nations (1996, Table 16, pp. 116-123).

2020 to 53 trillion PKM (Schafer and Victor,


1997). This has helped to create a community of global travellers with increasingly
significant social consequences.
The trend in international travel for Asian
passengers reflects these advances. As Table
9 demonstrates, from 1980 to 1994, the number of passengers scheduled for international
services increased, in most cases by twice the
world average rate and faster than the rates
of increase in comparable NIEs in Latin
America.
In general, the increased widening and
intensity of globalisation processes have
been uneven around the world but, until
recently, have affected the Asia-Pacific

region in positive ways. The intensity and


diversification
of international connectivity
among nations within the region and between
those of the Asia-Pacific
region and the
world have created regional interdependency.
Notwithstanding the comments of those that
are less impressed by these trends (for one of
many sceptical views of globalisation,
see
Harris, 1998), the importance of economic
globalisation processes is predicted to increase in the medium to long term (Lo,
1994). The stability of FOi inflows into the
highly affected economies during the 1997
financial crisis is a good sign that the economic base of the region is still on a sound
footing.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.

GLOBALISATION AND THE ASIA-PACIFIC

89

REGION

Table 9. Civil aviation trends (scheduled international service passengers, in


thousands)
Percentage
change
Country
1980
1992
1993
1994
1980-94

Singapore

World

163 222

299 612

318424

343 712

110.6

Japan

4499

II 589

11 260

12 700

182.3

9 271
9 929
159.4
2 105
5 633
6 372
7 368

250.0

I 924
922
I 822
997

5 343
2 773
5 081
2 113

6 203
2 932
5 597
2 229

6 775
3 285
6402
2 356

252.1
256.3
251.4
136.3

360
6

4 500
130

4 667
137

4909
137

l 263.6
2 183.3

1300
I 330
2 777

I 787
2 707
3 976

I 661
3 062
3 703

I 999
3 372
3 540

53.8
153.5
27.5

3 827
Korea

8477

Thailand
Indonesia
Malaysia
Philippines
China
Vietnam
Argentina
Brazil
Mexico

Source: United Nations ( 1996, Table 65, pp. 575-589).

World City Formation


The emergence of the functional city system
is defining roles for cities. The factors
that help to explain the emergence and
maintenance of the system encompass the
economic flows among cities integrated into
the system. These include the decisions
made by TNCs to locate their activities
within urban borders and the ways in which
governments promote development. Much
of the economic activity associated with
growth and investment has occurred in the
major metropolitan centres in the region
(Table 10).
Given the type of development in the
Asia-Pacific region (i.e. export-orientation,
manufacturing production with accompanying information and technology-intensive
service development), cities are the spaces of
the most intensive change (Yeung, 1993).
However, other cities within the Pacific
Rim are increasingly being included within
the regional city system (for example, Sydney, Vancouver and Los Angeles). 'World
city formation' is the process by which
the global economy impinges upon cities

and transforms their social, economic and


physical dimensions. At one level, cities
within the region and within the functional
city system are growing more alike. They are
converging (see also Armstrong and McGee,
1985). In this section, we discuss the impacts
of the flows of FDI, trade, information and
people on cities in the Asia-Pacific to demonstrate ways in which they have become
similar.

World City Formation Asia-Pacific

Style

In general, world city formation can be


thought of as the process in which the
world's active capital becomes concentrated
in cities (Friedmann and Wolff, 1982). In
exploring the world city formation process,
many scholars have focused on the role of
command-and-control activities in large urban agglomerations (see, for example,
Sassen, 1991, 1994 ). These authors concentrate on the location of headquarters for
transnational corporations, international institutions, business-services, transport access,

90

FU-CHEN LO AND PETER J. MARCOTULLIO

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GLOBALISATION

91
firms. Telecommunications and transport infrastructure were among the top seven determinants of investment location decisions
(FEER, 1997).
Central governments have been important
to the development of urban infrastructure.
Asia-Pacific governments have taken note of
the World Bank's (1994) conclusions that
infrastructure investment was positively correlated with economic growth and have acted
accordingly.5 Table 1 I demonstrates investments in infrastructure among economies in
the region compared to other fast-growing
economies in South America. While there
has been progress, infrastructure gaps have
been one of Asia's bottlenecks. Because of
rapid growth, Asia-Pacific nations have had
a shortfall in infrastructure investment. Most
countries in the region have grown by between 7 and 8 per cent since the 1980s, but
they have only invested about 4 per cent of
their GDP in infrastructure resulting in a 2-3
per cent investment gap (Thornton, 1995).
Although, on the whole, national infrastructure investment has not been sufficient to
keep up with demands country-wide, much
of the infrastructure investment has been
concentrated in major metropolitan centres,
which has intensified the effects of globalisation processes in those spaces. Further, there
has also been a specific and similar set of
urban infrastructure developments across
Asia-Pacific cities.
Whereas the emphasis in Latin America
and in Eastern Europe has been on the privatisation of existing infrastructure facilities,
Asia has been investing heavily in, inter alia,
new transport
and telecommunications
projects (OXAN, 1998). These investments
were made to cope with rapidly growing
global traffic. One popular project has been
the large futuristic airport, such as the recently opened Chek Lap Kok airport in Hong
Kong, Kansai airport in Osaka, the Seoul
Metropolitan Airport and Nong Ngu Hao in
Bangkok. Indeed, the concept of the 'Pearl
River delta' could be marketed only because
of the plethora of new airport openings in the
region. Locations include Hong Kong, an

AND THE ASIA-PACIFIC

population size, research and education facilities, and convention and exhibition functions (Friedmann, l 986; Rimmer, 1996).
This focus, however, limits the numbers and
types of cities included as 'world' or 'global'. On the other hand, a number of scholars
have also included the role of industrial production activities and trade (Feagin and
Smith, 1987; Lo and Yeung, 1996a). Regional and world cities include those that
have become major centres of manufacturing
and service-related activities.
The world city formation process implies
that, in order to be effective in global and
regional economies, cities have undergone
physical
restructuring.
Some important
physical characteristics
that are part of
the world city formation process include
the development
of transport facilities
and communication infrastructure (including
teleports). Many times these are incorporated
into public projects financed by governments. At the same time, the private sector
is also heavily involved in the production
of urban mega-projects and 'prestige buildings', usually as part of inner-city development (Olds, 1995). These developments
often include land reclamation.
Further,
urban transformations include the development of R&D complexes just outside the
city's boundary.
The term 'infrastructure' includes a variety
of public structures such as utilities (power,
telecommunications,
piped water supply,
sanitation and sewerage, solid waste collection and disposal), works (roads and major
dams and canal works for irrigation and
drainage) and transport edifices (urban and
interurban railways, urban transport, port and
waterways and airports) (World Bank, 1994).
In developing countries, these investments
account for up to 20 per cent of total investment and 4 per cent of their GDP (World
Bank, 1994). Good quality infrastructure is
not only conducive to economic production,
but is also important in attracting investment
(Peck, 1996). In a survey by the Far Eastern
Economic Review, infrastructure issues were
considered crucial to investment decisions by

REGION

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.

92

FU-CHEN

LO AND PETER J. MARCOTULLIO

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GLOBALISATION

AND THE ASIA-PACIFIC

airport capable of receiving large aircraft in


Shenzhen, a modern new air facility in
Macau, another in Zhuhai (city adjoining
Macau) and approval from Beijing for one in
Guangzhou
(Vittachi,
1995).
Before the
Asian financial
crisis of 1997, 11 new airports were planned for opening within the
next l 0 years in different cities throughout
this area (Yeung,
1996). Those cities that
already have large airport terminals are in the
process of upgrading them. Cities such as
Taipei and Singapore already have modern
facilities, but are planning for future expansions (Japan Development Bank, 1996). Singapore, for example, plans to enlarge Changi
airport, so that it can handle over two and a
half times more airplane take-offs (360 000)
a year.
Asian
countries have made significant
strides in providing road and rail transport
access to large cities. During the
period
1965- 75 annual highway usage increased at
the rate of l 0. 7 per cent and annual truck
tonnage increased by 7 .19 per cent, while the
growth rate of the region was only 4.7 per
cent (Yeung,
l 998). In road and rail transport, Hong Kong and Japan have been high
infrastructure investors. During the post-war
years Japan successfully
pioneered highspeed trains (Shinkanseni that revolutionised
short-distance
travel in the country. Between
l 990 and 1993, Hong Kong truck tonnage
grew at 15.3 per cent annually and passenger
growth grew by 8.9 per cent (Yeung. 1996).
This represents the results of heavy investment in roads. Both Tokyo and Hong Kong
have also invested heavily in bridges. In
l 994 alone, Hong Kong awarded six 'considerably sized' bridge contracts to international
construction
conglomerates
(compared with
one awarded during that year in all of
France) (Thornton,
1995), including the Tsing Ma Bridge-the
biggest railway suspension bridge in the world. Hong Kong recently
finished a US$20 billion transport project
and is committed to spending another US$30
billion on future transport infrastructure over
the next 5 years (Leung, I 998).
Other nations in the region have also invested in road and rail transport infrastruc-

REGION

93

ture to connect their cities. South Korea


started its transport investment
with the
Seoul-Pusan,
Seoul-Incheon
and DaejonJeonju express highways in the late 1960s
and by 1990 had completed over 1551 km of
expressways (Hong, 1997). South Korea has
also been working on a high-speed railway
system (Thornton, 1995). Kuala Lumpur in
Malaysia recently finished the first line of an
urban light rail system and their Renong
group completed
an 800-km North-South
Highway for US$2.3 billion in 1994. Renong
may also build a US$725 million high-speed
'tilting-train' that would significantly reduce
travelling
times
between
Rawang, Kuala
Lumpur and Ipoh, 174 km to the north
(Jayasankaran,
1997).
The volume of trade generated by the region has facilitated the development of the
world's largest cargo pons. Most of the import and export traffic flows through selected
cities. Of the world's 'top 25' container pons
in 1992, 12 are located in the region; these
include (in rank order) Hong Kong(!),
Singapore (2), Kaohsing (4), Pusan (5), Kobe
(6), Keelung (10), Yokohama (I I), Tokyo
(14), Bangkok (19), Manila (21), Nagoya
(24) and Tanjung Priok (25) (Rimmer, 1996).
In I 984, the league of largest pons was
headed by Rotterdam and bi-state New York/
New Jersey pons, but by 1992 Hong Kong
and Singapore
had moved up to first and
second
posrtions respectively
(Rimmer,
1996). As entrepots,
both Singapore and
Hong Kong represent extreme cases of tradecity nexus. Singapore's exports of goods and
non-factor services were I 90 per cent of its
GDP in 1990 and, during the same year,
Hong Kong's exports were 137 per cent of
its GDP (World Bank, 1992). Eighty per cent
of Korea's imports and exports go through
Pusan (Thornton, 1995). In Jakarta, Indonesia, the 1989 value of the city's exports
accounted for one-third of all Indonesia's
exports (excluding oil and gas) and the city's
share of trade has been increasing since
1986. During 1989, 50 per cent of all imports
to the country moved through
the city
(Soegijoko, J 996).

94

FU-CHEN

LO AND PETER J. MARCOTULLIO

Another type of urban development


project encouraged by the world economy
is the construction of high-speed information
transmission infrastructure. This is particularly important for service-sector growth
and maintenance. As mentioned previously,
although the region is lagging behind the rest
of the world, business services are of growing importance in selected cities (Edgington
and Haga, 1998). In general, large cities
in the region are the best providers of
telecommunication
services among the
nations of east and south-east Asia. Two to
three times the percentage of urbanites enjoy
telecommunications links in the cities of
Bangkok,
Manila, Jakarta and Shanghai,
compared with the inhabitants of the smaller
cities and the rural areas in their respective countries (Japan Development Bank,
1996).
In some Asian cities, information technologies have taken on special importance.
Singapore has attempted to restructure its
economy towards the creation of an information city." A 1991 government publication
set out the key role of the information economy in meeting the city-state's needs. The
city-state is aiming to make itself a hub of
communications, finance and travel. Information technology is at the core of plans for
the city's future (Perry et al., 1997). The
Teleport project in Tokyo, less than 6 km
from downtown, was planned as an information and futuristic city. The estimated construction cost of the area's infrastructure
alone is approximately US$20 billion (TMG,
1996). Malaysia is holding to its promise to
develop a 'Multimedia Super Corridor', Cyber Jaya, that will stretch from Kuala
Lumpur 50 km to the south, ending at a new
international airport. It will be connected to
both the airport and the capital via several
forms of transport (see Figure 1 ). Despite the
nation's current fiscal situation, the project is
still moving ahead (Hiebert et al., 1997).
This project is envisaged as a setting for
multimedia
and information-technology
companies and is being promoted through
government incentives.
An additional information-related type of

development that is changing the urban region's landscape in the Asia-Pacific region is
the construction
of large R&D facilities.
Asian cities have invested in R&D complexes that are typically located outside the
city core. In Japan, the government has encouraged the construction of entire technoIogicall y advanced cities or 'technopolises'
such as Tsukuba Science City located northeast of Tokyo (see below). Taiwan used this
model to create Science Park, a new R&D
and high-technology
manufacturing
centre
located in Hsinchu outside Taipei.
Location decisions for TNCs not only include consideration
of the amount of infrastructure, but also of its type and quality as
particular industries have specific requirements (Peck,
1996). Asia-Pacific
governments, in efforts to provide incentives to
firms, have developed
'industrial parks' at
the outskirts of their cities. Much of this
development has been concentrated in and
around major metropolitan cities in the region (Table 12). In Singapore, Taipei and
Seoul, industrial parks have operated with
success, prompted and supported by government and private investments.
One important and controversial device to
stimulate exports and foreign investment has
been the development
of export-processing
zones (EPZs). An EPZ is a relatively small,
separated area that is designated as a zone for
favourable investment
and trade conditions
(compared with the host country). In effect,
they are export enclaves within which special
concessions
apply-including
extensive incentives and often exemptions from certain
kinds of limiting legislation.
The government
provides the physical infrastructure necessary
for industries. EPZs are set up for manufacturing. While some EPZs have been incorporated into airports, seaports or commercial
free zones located next to large cities, others
have been set up in relatively undeveloped
areas as part of a regional development strategy. Asia contains 60 per cent of all EPZ
employment in developing countries. Hong
Kong and Singapore are zones of intensive
export-processing activities concentrated in a

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.

GLOBALISATION

95

AND THE ASIA-PACIFIC REGION

/\

'<, _ _.....-,

.I

MALAYSIA

.\

c:

Kuala
Lumpur

''\.
'

\'

;
"-- 1.'1:

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1:

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-_/-;'fr ..r'l,-"!
Cyber
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;;1:,

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-,
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......

1\~
1\~
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ERL
KUA

Express Rail Link


Kuala Lumpur International
Airport Expressway

NS

North-South Expressway

"-

Kuala Lumpur'')
International /
Airport
,

" '".j

I
,./

number of industrial estates. In 1986, total where with the exceptions of Mexico and
employment in such zones was 89 000 and Columbia, EPZs have not played a prominent
217 000 persons respectively. The other ma- role in the industrialisation process.
jor concentrations are in Taiwan (80 469 emApart from infrastructure, the public and
ployed in 4 EPZs), Malaysia (81 688 private sectors in Asia-Pacific cities have
employed in 11 EPZs), South Korea been involved in redevelopment efforts.
(140 000 employed in 3 EPZs) and the Changes in the global economy are inducing
Philippines (39 000 employed in 3 EPZs) cities throughout the world to look at large(Dicken, 1992). This type of development is scale development projects as a way to rein stark contrast to that of South America structure land uses and stimulate the local

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.

96

FU-CHEN LO AND PETER J. MARCOTULLIO

Table 12. The location share of industrial parks


around selected Asian cities, 1993

Percentage share of
total industrial parks

up quickly"," According to the Tall Building


Council, in 1986, the 10 tallest buildings
were all in the US. In 1996, 4 of the top IO

were in Asia (Petronas Towers, Malaysia;


Central Plaza, Hong Kong; Bank of China
Extended
Tower, Hong Kong; Shun Hing Square;
City
Inner city metropolitan area
Shenzen) (Gebhart, 1997). Typically these
projects are usually conceived of as landKuala Lumpur
0.5
8.1
marks to "symbolise the prosperity of the
Bangkok
23.6
Manila
1.9
70.2
city ... and embody the hopes and lofty ideBuilding
Tokyo,
completed
in 1985,
Jakarta
9.7
66.9
als
of the inpeople".
8 The
Mitsui New
No. 2is
Source: Japan Development Bank (1996).
regarded as the first built in Asia. Since then
Manila has completed a 32-storey Stock Exchange Centre in 1992, which is run by an
economy (Amborski and Keare, 1998). electronic nerve centre able to monitor the
For example, in many cities in developed and internal conditions of the building by regulatsome developing countries, large, well- ing air conditioning and lighting. Seoul's
located areas previously occupied by railroad Sixty-four Building is also one of similar
facilities, related transport and industrial uses design and significance.
have been left abandoned as more goods are
An aspect of many Asian projects is that
now shipped in containers from a smaller they are on 'reclaimed' land. For example,
number of ports and terminals. These much of the central-city area of Singapore
deserted areas represent opportunities for resince 1960s has been reclaimed, including
development and have helped to advance the East Coast area, which over the past two
megaprojects, which have come into vogue decades has seen the arrival of new commerat the end of the 20th century. Over three cial and business centres such as Marine
dozen such projects have been identified Parade. The Kansai, Chek Lap Kok and
around the world (Olds, 1995). In Tokyo, for Seoul airports are all built on reclaimed land.
example, over the last decades the four Tokyo has been expanding through landfills
largest redevelopment
projects were the along the Tokyo Bay since the 1960s to
Tokyo Metropolitan government office provide sites for its booming industries and a
building in Shinjuku, the Ebisu Garden new airport. The Haneda airport, only 15 km
Plaza, the Tokyo International Forum and the from the city centre, was originally built as
Tokyo Teleport. These projects represent a an international facility, but has only supredevelopment effort that has been compared ported a domestic role after the opening of
to the rebuilding undertaken after the great Narita. The demand for space in Hong Kong
Kanto earthquake in 1923 and reconstruction
since the mid 19th century has necessitated
after the 1945 World War II bombings. The
land reclamation from its deep-water harcity has been expanding (more quickly dur- bour.
ing the 1980s) in all directions possible: up
World city formation is a continuing and
to new heights, out to the edges of the Kanto
varied process. The few examples of related
plain; off into Tokyo Bay and down below
urban physical transformations in the Asiathe ground (Cybriwsky, n.cl.).
Pacific are presented as common features. A
These publicly and privately financed
description of this process, however, neither
megaprojects often include high-profile provides a prediction as to whether a particu'prestige' buildings to portray their status. As lar city will continue to participate in globalone architect suggested, "many Asian coun- isation-driven growth in the future, nor does
tries see the tall building as a device to move it make possible the determination of a dethem quickly into the 21st century, to catch fined development path for all cities. The

GLOBALISATION

97
works within the Asia-Pacific region, the
emergence of a large urban corridor stretching between Tokyo and north-east China, via
the two Koreas, to Malaysia, Indonesia and
the Philippines, makes up the east Asian
regional system. The large urban corridor
consists of a set of smaller-scale urban corridors including the Pan-Japan Sea Zone, the
Pan-Bohai Zone and the South China Zone,
among others (Figure 2). Choe ( 1996) provides an illustration of a mature transnational
sub-regional urban corridor, in which an inverted S-shaped 1500-km urban belt from
Beijing to Tokyo via Pyongyang and Seoul
connects 112 cities with over 200 000 inhabitants each into an urban conglomeration of
over 98 million people (Figure 3).
Cities networked into the functional city
system in the Asia-Pacific region have not
developed uniformly. The demands of the
emerging city system in the region have been
different for each city depending on a variety
of factors, but predominantly upon the economic functions performed. Those cities that
are on the top of the urban hierarchy include
the major capital exporters. Within these cities, business firms play important commandand-control roles within the world and the
region (for example, Tokyo, Japan, and to a
lesser extent Seoul, Korea, and Taipei, Taiwan). These cities are developing differently
from the major industrial FDI recipients (for
example, Jakarta,
Indonesia,
Shanghai,
China, and Bangkok, Thailand). Further, two
entrepots (Hong Kong and Singapore) have
demonstrated a level of cross-border development not experienced as intensely as other
metropolitan centres. Lastly, some cities in
the system have been developing as 'amenity' cities. These, urban centres are taking
steps to enhance their ecological environments in such a way as to attract investment
and economic activity.

AND THE ASIA-PACIFJC

next section presents generalised patterns of


differentiated development among sets of cities in the region. The categorisation is not
meant to be exhaustive, but rather demonstrates the ways that international functional
networks have impacted city growth and development differently.
The Regional Functional City System
Although globalisation connotes an increasingly homogenised world, and has led to the
use of such labels as 'global village', 'global
market-place' or 'global factory', claims of
movements towards seamless urban space
are oversimplifications. The 'global city'
concept connotes a uniform development that
obscures the multifaceted dynamics of
growth for cities in the world city system.
Thus, rather than focus on the singular form
of 'global cities', we present world city formation as a multifaceted process. Economic
interdependency and government interventions have also allowed for divergence in
urban growth and development patterns
among cities in the region. As cities outside
the Asia-Pacific region, as defined in the
beginning of this paper, incorporate into the
regional city system, they too take on unique
and important functional characteristics. As
the functions of cities within the regional
system vary, so do their development patterns.
Although directed in many ways, the
government-backed
pursuit of growth
through the free market has privileged the
process of capital accumulation. Many city
public officials have formed coalition with
either land-based entrepreneurs or business
conglomerates. The weak tradition of local
autonomy and lack of decentralisation among
nations in the region have inhibited the formation of intermediate institutions and organisations for tighter regulation. Hence,
growth has followed the broad outlines delimited by the particular unique functional
role of the city in the regional and global
economy (Kim, 1997; Lo, 1994; Lo and Marcotullio, 1998; Yeung and Lo, 1998).
Among a variety of developing urban net-

REGION

Capital Exporters (Post-industrial Cities)


The post-industrial city is dominated by the
processing of information and knowledge
(Savitch, 1988). Tokyo, Seoul and to a lesser

98

FU-CHEN LO AND PETER J. MARCOTULLIO

Population (million)
20
. 15
.. 10
..
.6
.. 3
1

CHINA

Xi'an.

Chengdu.
Chongqing.

'

->:

PACIFIC OCEAN

''

'Myanmar
..

-, ...... ..'-. -----

@ Urban corridor
CS) GrO'Nth triangle

. -,_-' LAO~:
I

",:,-~_,

Q Natural economic region

PHILIPPINES~

.. '.,:",

11,

:
:

THAILAND

Manila

\_,

j>

'

. ~cf~\0
fto%'

INDONESIA

s-:

OCl~C::::;;:=::J"~
C::)

500

' I '

I
Turmen River Delta Growth Triangle
II
The East Sea Rim (Sea of Japan} Economic
Regton
Ill
BESETO Urban Corridor
IV
Bohai Rim Economic Region
V
Yenow Sea Economic Region
VI
Yangzi River Urban Corridor
VII
Southern China
Growth
Triangle
VIII Taiwan-Fujian Growth Triangle
IX
Pearl River Oeha Growth Triangle
X
Baht Economic Region
XI
Northern Malaysian Growth Triangle
XII SUORI GrowthTriangle
XIII JABOTABEK Urban Corridor
XIV Oavao-Manado-Sabah Natural Economic R ion

1000 km
I

Figure 2. Urban corridors in east Asia. Source: Choe (1998, Figure 7.3).

extent Taipei exemplify the Asia-Pacific


style of post-industrial development. Sassen
( 1991) has identified the economic and social
order of 'global cities', of which New York,
London and Tokyo are examples. By now,
the argument is familiar to the reader. These
cities are the sites of concentrations of TNC
headquarters, multinational
banks and producer and business services. In Tokyo, employment in manufacturing is decreasing and

employment in the service sector is increasing (Honjo, 1998). It houses a high concentration of central management
functions
(CMFs), research and development firms and
government agencies within Japan. At the
same time, the city is expanding, leaving
inner-city workers with longer commutes
as many of the jobs remain in the innercity area.
Like Tokyo, Seoul has a disproportionate

GLOBALISATION AND THE ASIA-PACIFIC REGION

99

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.

100

FU-CHEN LO AND PETER J. MARCOTULLIO

share of the national population (23 per cent


in 1995). Service and high-tech activities are
also highly concentrated within the Seoul
metropolitan area. In 1992, 57 per cent of the
total industrial establishments and 51 per
cent of their workers were located in the
Seoul Metropolitan Area (Hong, 1997). All
of Korea's TNCs are based in the capital city
and enjoy close contact with the central
government, a necessary condition for Korean business deals. While new 'downtowns', across the Han River have been
created by moving the various back offices
into locations close to the new towns of
Pyongchon,
Sanbon and Bundang, Seoul
City retains the most important control-andmanagement functions (Kwon, 1996, 1998).
Also, like Tokyo, the amount of inbound FOi
is small compared to that of outbound flows.
In the single year of 1996, outbound flows of
FOi from Seoul reached US$4.2 billion.
Compare this with US$6.25 billion, the total
accumulated stock of inbound FOi in the city
as of 1996.
These relations take on specific forms in
the urban landscape. Both cities have con-

centrations of large megaprojects, particularly those with large high-rent residential


and commercial spaces, R&D centres, and
recreational/entertainment facilities for the
upper-income
service-sector
employees.
Teleports for the smooth transmission of information and gleaming 'intelligent' buildings housing banks and other important
financial institutions are developed in central
business districts. Nodal clusters of spatially
differentiated economic activities have appeared. This multicentric structure is seen in
Tokyo (Figure 4) where areas such as
Shibuya, Ikebukuro, Ueno and Shinjuku each
capture different economic roles within the
city's economy. While other cities in the
region have similar types of development, in
Tokyo they have highly evolved to meet the
needs of a post-industrial urban centre.
Tsukuba Science City, one of Japanese first
technolopolis centres is only 60 km from
central Tokyo and includes both living and
working facilities within a satellite town
(Figure 5). It has attracted 120 private research establishments, including international
giants such as Du Pont, ICI, Intel and Texas

NARITAA.P.

~B.
Tokyo-wan Bridge'--,

Figure 4. The Tokyo region.

a,

Source: Tokyo Metropolitan

Government ( [996).

NE C

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.

GLOBALISATION AND THE ASIAPACIFIC REGION

101

A
High
r-lEnergy
Physics

;victor
lake Kaumigaura

"'

Hitach

i
Maxwell

Canan

O
I

II

Japan
Texas
Instruments

500 km
I

Kirin

Canon

Kyowa
Hakka

Residence and business areas;


National research institutes

Business and research parks


Corporatelaboratories

Figure 5. Tsukuba Science City, Japan. Source: Edgington (1994, Figure 1.9).
Instruments and since 1985 the number of
private company researchers and their support staff have risen to 5000-almost matching the 6700 government researchers
(Edgington, 1994).
Seoul also has undergone significant industrial restructuring and spatial reorganisation since the 1980s. Manufacturing
industries have decentralised while advanced
services are concentrated in the core regions
of the city. Seoul's emerging multicentric
structure is closely related to intraregional
specialisation of producer services as each
centre has distinctive characteristics in terms
of local interfirm networks and firm structure
102

(Park and Nahm, 1998). Because of Seoul's


continued growth, the government is considering abandoning the 'green belt' ring concept and therefore intensifying use of a once
protected area.
Sites of FD!: Industrial Cities
Industrial manufacturing processes are vitally important to the growth and development of the regional production system and
hence these centres play an important role in
the functional city system. Industrial centres
include urban areas such as Bangkok (Krongkaew, 1996), Jakarta (Soegijoko, 1996)

FU-CHEN LO AND PETER J. MARCOTULLIO

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.

and Shanghai (Cui, 1995). These urban cen- tres have


recently experienced a decline in agriculture and an
increase in industrial concentration in the outer rings of the city. Employment data for Jabotabek demonstrate this
trend (Tables 13 and 14). From 1971 to
1990, despite absolute increases, the share of
employment in all sectors declined in
Jakarta, and increased in the outer administrative districts (kabupatens) of Bogar,
Tangerang and Bekasi. Manufacturing development continues to be stimulated by various
ing the creationsponsored
of industrial
parks includwithin
governmentally
activities
these districts (Figure 6).
Areas outside the urban cores have relatively more available land and somewhat less
stringent regulatory controls on manufacturing-related growth and investment by multinational
corporations. Hence,
industrial
activity start-ups result from the inflow of
foreign direct investment. Global integration
has affected the pattern of development by
producing a ring of manufacturing plants
concentrated in a 'doughnut' fashion around
the city cores. In Jabotabek during the early
1990s, real estate, mining and industrialactivity-oriented FDI dispersed to the outer
area while construction, trading and serviceoriented FDI concentrated in the centre
(Table 15).

Table 13. Trends in the spatial distribution of


employment by sector in Jabotabek, 1971-90
(percentages)
Region/District

1971

1980

1990

DK/ Jakarta
Primary
Secondary
Tertiary

12.3
66.4
74.2

7.1
64.9
71.8

5.3
51.0
59.6

Botabek
Primary
Secondary
Tertiary

87.7
33.6
25.8

92.9
35.1
28.2

94.7
49.0
40.4

The Bangkok metropolitan region (BMR)


of Thailand is located centrally, adjacent
to the Gulf of Thailand. The Bangkok metropolitan region
includes the Bangkok
metropolitan area (BMA) and the administrative regions of Nonthaburi, Pathum Thani, Samul Prakan, Samut Sakhon and Nakhon
Pathom. In the 1980s, manufacturing value
added in the BMR accounted for more than 75
per cent of the nation's total manufacturing
production. In the early 1990s, however, there
was a significant shift of industrial production
to the outer sections of the BMR and to
Rayong, Chon Buri, Chachoengsao, (the Eastern Seaboard Region). The Thailand Board of

Table 14. Trends in the spatial distribution of employment by


sector in Jabotabek, 1971-90 (thousands)
Region/District
DK/ Jakarta
Primary
Secondary
Tertiary

1971
46 122
202 901
895 377

Botabek
Primary
Secondary
Tertiary

329 087
102 848
311 089

Jabotabek
Primary
Secondary
Tertiary

375 209
305 749
1206466

1980

1990

51 510
428 533
1447591

49 910
810 231
2 071 711

674 662
232 067
568 222

900 085
777 681
1404191

726 172
660 600
2015813

949 995
1 587 912
3 475 902

Source: BAPPENAS-NLI Research Institute (1996).

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.

GLOBALISATION AND THE ASIA-PACIFIC

103

REGION

Figure 6. Jabotabek: actual and proposed industrial estates, 1990 and 2010. Source: Executive Agency
Directorate (I 990, Figure 4.4).

Table 15. Spatial distribution of foreign direct investment in Jabotabek, 199~94


(percentages)
Sector
DKI Jakarta
Botabek
Construction
Trading
Hotels and restaurants
Agriculture
Transport, warehouses and communications
Other services
Wood industries
Non-metal mineral industries
Food industries
Textile industries
Metal products and machinery
Chemicals
Other industries
Paper industries
Basic metal industries
Mining
Real estate

100.0
100.0
94.3
90.9
86.0
83.5
24.2
22.8
19.4
14.2
10.7
6.7
4.4
3.1
2.0
0.0
0.0

0.0
0.0
5.7
9.1
14.1
16.5
75.8
77.3
80.6
85.8
89.4
93.3
95.6
96.9
98.0
100.0
100.0

Source: BAPPENAS-NLI Research Institute ( 1996).

104

FU-CHEN LO AND PETER J. MARCOTULLIO

Investment suggests that Eastern Seaboard's


share of industrial investment increased from
23 to 63 per cent from 1991 to 1996 (Kit-

tiprapas, 1998).
The flows of FDI into the industrial
cities of Bangkok and Jakarta create an

urban form that includes industrial


development in the suburban or ex-urban
fringes and commercial development in the
centre. While we have only described
these two cities, similar changes are
happening in other places such as Shanghai.
This development is distinctly different from
that associated with the capital exporters.

The Entrepots: Borderless Cities


Economic globalisation has stimulated subregional economic co-operation in several
locales.
Successful growth triangles,
a
uniquely Asian development pattern, are localised economic zones involving several
countries; the centre of each is a major
metropolitan area. These can be viewed as
'borderless'
economies where the international division of labour has developed to
the urban centre's advantage (Thant et al.,
1994 ). Cities that have been impacted by
borderless economies can no longer be considered distinct economies, but are really part
of a larger extended metropolitan region
(EMR) (Ginsburg et al., 1991; Macleod and
McGee, 1996). EMRs may stretch up to
I 00 km from an urban core and are characterised by high levels of economic diversity
and interaction, a high percentage of nonfarm employment and a "deep penetration of
global market forces into the countryside"
(Macleod and McGee, 1996, p. 418). EMR
growth implies the increasing need for development to be seen as regional rather than
rural or urban.
An existing 'borderless' economy has
grown between Singapore, Malaysia (Johore)
and Indonesia (Riau Islands) and is called
SIJORI. It revolves around the city-state of
Singapore, which has recently reached out to
acquire the benefits that rural industrialisation can provide. The growth of the outer

reaches of Singapore's core was directly related to Singapore's maturing economy. The
flows of people and goods from the city to
the outlying areas have accompanied an increasing level of cross-border capital flows.
Another example of cross-border cooperative development, involving capital,
technological and managerial inputs, concerns the integration of Hong Kong, Taiwan
and China's southern provinces of Guangdong and Fujian. Hong Kong is the centre of
the Zhujiang Delta and has emerged as a
financial and headquarters centre. A large
proportion of the manufacturing production
in Hong Kong has been relocated to southern
Guangdong
in
China.
Apart
from
Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Zhuhai and Huizhou,
most other cities within the delta are basically labour- and land-intensive production
areas. They are dominated by manufacturing
with a small tertiary sector. About 3-5 million workers in this part of China are reportedly employed in factories funded, designed
and managed by Hong Kong entrepreneurs.
Further, by 1990, about 20.8 per cent of
Hong Kong's imports were from the interior
of China and 31 per cent of her exports went
to China (Sung, 1991 ). During 1990, as measured in standard 20-foot equivalent units
(TEUs), the trade volume entering Hong
Kong was over I million TEUs. The volume
of trade by road between Hong Kong and
Shenzen totalled 805 000 TEUs and the volume ferried in by vessels from all over the
Zhajiang delta totalled another 281 000
TEUs (Chu, 1996).
In July 1997, China reabsorbed Hong
Kong. However, the 'borderless' economy of
the city still exists, perhaps even more so.
Taiwanese capital has been attracted to the
city and much of it has been channelled
through Hong Kong intermediaries to the
mainland. This is particularly true for Taiwanese investments in rapidly growing cities
such as Shanghai (Ning and Wang, 1996).
Also, trade relations between China, Hong
Kong and Taiwan are highly integrated and
considered an important part of each country's continued growth (Hwang, 1995).

GLOBALISATION

105
to the need to secure large quantities of
Canadian agricultural and industrial resources, 11 of Japan's major general trading
companies, called sago shosha, established
subsidiaries in Canada. Of these 11, 5 chose
Vancouver as their local headquarters. This
is because 60 per cent of the sogo shosha 's
trade is done through the Port of Vancouver.
While Japan accounted for only 6 per cent of
Canadian export destinations in 1988, it
made up 27 per cent of that of British
Columbia. Further, Japanese trade with
Canada expanded between 1960 and 1990
and the Canadian-based
branches of the
Japanese sogo shosha generated most of the
business (Mcflee, 1998).
Both Vancouver and Sydney have recently
become popular destinations for Asian
immigrants. In 1991, Sydney had 28.5 per
cent of Australia's born-overseas population.
Approximatley 42 per cent of all recent
immigrants to the country were from Asia.
For Sydney, the growth of foreign-born residents is twice as fast as the growth of the
total population. Sydney's greater integration
with the global economy, including the local
airport's (Kingsford Smith) dominance as a
hub of air traffic, plays an important role in
these flows (Murphy and Wu, 1998). Vancouver is one of the most rapidly growing
urbanised regions in North America. Between 1981 and 1996, the population of the
region increased from 1.2 million to 1.6 million. Of these, 600 000 people, almost onethird, arrived in the years 1991-94. Most
significantly, net international migration increased from 33 per cent in the 1980s to 59
per cent during 1991-94. Many of these migrants are from Asia (McGee, 1998).
The cities' environmental amenities (climate, harbour, beaches, mountains, low levels of pollution), and multicultural character
are key to their competitive advantages. Vancouver is part of a wide region of 'geographical affinity' which stretches from Southern
Oregon to the ski resort of Whistler, 120 km
north of the city. However, one problem for
Vancouver is managing growth as city expansion is sandwiched between the ocean
and the foothills of the Rocky Mountains.

AND THE ASIA-PACIFIC

Amenity Cities
Notwithstanding the lack of attention given
to environmental issues in some predominantly industrial cities within the regional
city system, globalisation provides the impetus for the development of ecologically
'sustainable' policies. Evidence of this trend
can be seen emerging in Sydney and Vancouver. These two cities have three important
aspects in common: post-industrial economies integrated into the Asia-Pacific regional
economy; 'inviting' natural environments or
high concentrations of 'amenities'; and, a
sufficiently high level of per capita welfare
accompanied by political acceptance for the
enhancement of the environment.
Globalisation forces impacting Vancouver
and Sydney include financial and capital
flows consistent
with their post-industrial
economic structures, trade in goods (for Vancouver) and immigration flows. Sydney is
the capital of New South Wales and Australia's most global city. Vancouver, as part
of 'Cascadia', has been considered an emerging 'sub-global world city' (McGee, 1998).
Among Australia's cities, Sydney has the
largest share of regional
headquarters of
transnational corporations serving the AsiaPacific region. Sydney hosts three-quarters
of the international and domestic banks operating in Australia. It also has the country's
largest stock exchange and its only futures
exchange. Sydney is increasingly the preferred location for multinational regional
HQs in the Asia-Pacific region. Of the regional head offices of the top 20 firms in 4
sectors-accounting, advertising, management consulting and international real estate-39
per cent are in Sydney. These
concentrations of functions relate to both the
city's post-industrial economy and its roles
as command-and-control centre (Murphy and
Wu, 1998).
Trade is to Vancouver as information and
financial flows are to Sydney. Among the
trading connections the Vancouver-Hong
Kong relationship has received the most attention. However, the Vancouver region has
also had significant linkages with Japan. Due

REGION

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.

106

FU-CHEN LO AND PETER J. MARCOTULLIO

Sydney has many beaches, a beautiful harbour and climatic attractions that can be considered environmental amenities. The state of
New South Wales and many local governments have come to appreciate that these
amenities need protection. In large part, this
is because both Sydney and Vancouver are
major tourist stops within the region. Because of their natural amenities, they attract a
large and economically important number of
tourists.
The local factor in the creation of amenity
cities is essential. In the state of New South
Wales, planning includes two phases (strategic and developmental). Consideration of
implications of development on the environment is mandated in both phases. As a result,
large areas of land earmarked for urban development in Sydney's west and south-west
were put on hold in the early 1990s due to air
pollution concerns. At the project level, environmental impact assessment applies to
both public and private developers. Further,
citizens and non-governmental organisations
continue to press for more regulation and
greater consideration of environmental impacts of development (Murphy and Wu,
1998). In Vancouver, the urban region has
attempted to develop strategic planning processes that provide for both liveability and
reinforced competitiveness. The Greater
Vancouver Regional District Authority
(GVRD), made up of 20 municipalities and 2
electoral areas, has developed a 'Liveable
Region Strategic Plan for 2021 '. Important
components of this plan include, inter alia,
implementing a transport plan that involves a
mix of private and public systems, implementation of environmentally acceptable
policies of waste removal and treatment, water provision and pollution control and committing more than two-thirds of the GVRD's
land base to a green zone to protect watersheds, parks, ecologically important areas,
working forests and farmland (Figure 7)
(McGee, 1998). Together, Vancouver and
Sydney are carving out niches within the
regional city system that includes the provision of a high-quality environment. This
environment invites both business (TNCs)

and immigrants and can be viewed as part of


their comparative advantages.
The development patterns described for
these urban categories are, at best, general.
Therefore it is not expected that every city in
the Asia-Pacific functional city system will
fit into this typology. The patterns represent,
we believe, the impacts of international influences on the growth and development of
cities in the region.
Conclusions
At the centre of global economic integration
and structural adjustment is the interlinkage
of megacities and other major metropolises.
In the Asia-Pacific region, economic and
social linkages form the basis of a functional
city system. Cities are the engines of economic growth in the new global and regional
economy. In the Asia-Pacific region, because of intense economic integration and
interdependence, an urban corridor has developed.
Those cities integrated into the functional
city system are undergoing the process of
world city formation. Whether they are labelled as 'world cities' is irrelevant. Their
inclusion in the system has had direct effects
on their form and growth. The demands of
the new economic and social order within the
region have selectively included cities within
the urban corridor running from Tokyo to
Jakarta-i.e.
large coastal cities with good
transport and communication access. Economic interactions are translated directly into
a growing number of airports, container
ports, road and rail transport linkages and
teleports. These major infrastructure provisions are but a few examples of the world
city formation process in action.
The urban system in the region is composed of hierarchically
integrated cities.
Typical examples of cities that are considered the nerve centres of the system are
Tokyo, Seoul and Taipei. While they have
retained the command-and-control roles of
the regional and global economies, other aspects of production and distribution have
decentralised to locations in other NIEs and

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GLOBAUS:\TfON

km

10
Waterbodies

Ill

AND THE ASIA-PACIFIC

Protected areas

REGION

107

Areas lo be developed

Figure 7. The Greater Vancouver region's green zone plan. Source: Greater Vancouver Regional District
(1996).

ASEAN countries. At a lower intensity of


decentralisation, cities such as Hong Kong
and Singapore have developed 'borderless'
economies, although their economies have
retained a strong neighbourhood character.
Industrial centres, such as Jakarta, Shanghai
and Bangkok, have developed an urban
growth pattern resembling a 'doughnut', with
commercial development occurring in the
centre of the city and manufacturing firms
locating around the periphery. Amenity cities
are increasingly becoming important to the
regional city system. They are highlighted as
important urban nodes where economic activity is promoting a certain level of 'sustainable' urban policy. Each of these types of
cities are integrated into the developing urban corridor of east and south-east Asia and
each make up an essential component of the
Asia-Pacific city system.

The functional city system has both


growth and sustainability policy implications
for regional development. Increasingly, cities
cannot be considered outside their role in the
regional or world city system. Enhancing
investments and future growth will depend
on the strength of these linkages until a new
global or world economic formation develops. Given that Asia, and hence the world,
can overcome the current crisis, economic
development under globalisation is expected
to continue for the medium term. In terms of
sustainability, each city must develop local
responses that mediate the negative environmental externalities and unwanted social
impacts accompanying this type of development. While some cities are encouraged to
maintain and enhance their local environments and ethnic diversities, because of their
roles within the functional city system, others

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108

FU-CHEN

LO AND PETER J. MARCOTULLIO

are not. However, all cities in the system will


increasingly run up against limiting factors to
growth, in all varieties. The challenge for
current and future city managers will be both
to circumvent those limits and to provide a
basic quality of life for all citizens. These
tensions will only become both more sharply
defined and more important in the new millennium.

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