As the National Intelligence Council's study says, "The prospect of significantly lower energy prices will have significant positive ripple effects for the U.S. economy, encouraging companies to take advantage of lower energy prices to locate or relocate to the U.S". Already there are significant signs of the relocation of manufacturing industry to the United States, drawn in part by cheap energy.
Instead, this paper puts more emphasis on economic geographical aspects of cross-border relocation of manufacturing production from China to Southeast Asia.
Globalisation has also increased global competition for talent and skills and resulted in the offshoring of jobs – a relocation of manufacturing from the higher-waged, advanced industrialised economies to lower labour-cost countries.
See, for instance, some trends in the US apparel industry relatively to the relocation of manufacturing platforms from Asia to Mexico and the Caribbean, let alone, in Europe, the landmark example of Zara.
The withering away and relocation of American manufacturing, and the rise of global capitalism.
The study fills a gap in the literature by investigating the effects of innovation on the survival and relocation of Hong Kong-owned manufacturing firms in Guangdong.
"These are people who are the losers in modernization," said Mr. Perrineau, referring to manufacturing workers made jobless by relocations overseas and demands for more technical skills.
Obviously, labour cost is not a single factor and actor in determining cross-border relocation of labour-intensive manufacturing.
The interaction between cross-border relocation of labour-intensive manufacturing firms from coastal Chin to Southeast Asian countries and technological upgrading in China warrants comprehensive investigation.
Indonesia, Cambodia and Vietnam are chosen as cases because they have experienced rapid transformation as emerging players in regional production networks in Southeast Asia and become major destinations of industrial relocation of China's manufacturing.
