• Journal of the Economic Geographical Society of Korea
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.408-422
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• 2013

This paper builds on recent scholarly endeavours to establish a body of knowledge on Varieties of Asian Capitalism/Asian Business Systems. The forthcoming Oxford handbook of Asian business systems systematically compares institutional capitalist arrangements across Asia including Laos, yet there is no chapter on Cambodia. The objective of this paper is to compare the Lao and Cambodian varieties of Asian capitalism, with special reference to the role of the state and the economic geography of both countries. Accordingly, it seeks answers to the questions as to how territory has become a key arena for re-organising economic power and how the Lao and Cambodian state themselves are being transformed through state capitalism and the Beijing-Seoul-Tokyo Consensus. A comparative analysis reveals a difference between state-coordinated frontier capitalism in Laos versus patrimonial oligarchy in Cambodia. Interdependencies between the market and the state in Laos display the state as active and interventionist. In some provinces the central government leaves decision making to provincial elites contributing to the emergence of other distinctive regional varieties of capitalism. The rising spatially less selective oligarchs in Cambodia focus relatively more on markets, but are certainly not seeking free markets with equal entry opportunities. The findings offer interesting possibilities for further research on the spaces of Asian capitalism, both from an empirical and theoretical perspective. More work should be done to accommodate the role of small and medium enterprises and theories need to better integrate oligarchic, personal and familial capitalism. Finally, comparative corridor studies in Laos could lead to better insights into the nature of regional varieties of capitalism.

• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
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• v.50 no.1
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• pp.73-90
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• 2015

This article focuses on geo-institutional differentiation and a multi-scalar analysis of emerging capitalist development in Laos. It discusses the impact of the Greater Mekong Subregion on new institutional economic and economic geographical arrangements. It demonstrates the usefulness of the varieties of Asian capitalism approach. The rubber industry was chosen to unravel emerging but various sub-national institutional arrangements linked to higher scale levels. Rubber is a growing agribusiness industry throughout the country, led by the insatiable demand from China. Overall, this study shows that the capitalist development of the rubber industry features much geo-institutional differentiation, due to the different strategies of Chinese, Thai and Vietnamese investors. Since Laos is still in transition from a state-led economy to something else, it is impossible at this to identify the exact number capitalisms. Yet, the evidence on rubber clearly lays bare the presence of multiple institutional arrangements. Without more inclusiveness, however, the implications for regional development are worrying. Exclusive arrangements will most likely lead to more uneven regional development and higher regional inequality. To refine theories on sub-national varieties of capitalism in developing countries it is instructive to consider more explicitly the notion of regional personal capitalisms and the complex interplay between national and regional states and relationships between capital accumulation and livelihood analyses.