Growth Politics and Planning for High-Tech New industrial Spaces in Kuala Lumpur and Bangalore (Nuffield Foundation Grant SGS/35219)

The aim of this Nuffield-funded research project which ran from 2007-2009 was to undertake pilot studies of political and policy responses to rapid urban growth in the city-regions of Bangalore and Kuala Lumpur, both of which have significant high-tech New Industrial Spaces (NIS). Within the overall aim, the proposed research had the following research objectives:

1. To investigate how growth requirements of different interests have been expressed at local, regional and national levels of the state.
2. To examine what actions have been taken by state and non-state actors to resolve actual and potential growth and under-provision crises.
3. To explore those interests and issues that have been marginalised or excluded in growth management strategies.
4. To compare the experience of Bangalore and Kuala Lumpur with ongoing research into NIS development in Europe and North America in terms of the ability of specific locales to attract high-tech investment within different national political-economic contexts.
5. To develop the research team’s theoretical work on new economic spaces and the politics of collective provision.

Some of the key insights from the Bangalore research include: the difficulties in joining up the initiatives of government agencies operating at city and state levels; the complexity of land ownership structures and its impact of strategic planning intervention; the various initiatives taken by private companies to ensure adequate infrastructure supply; and growing concerns about competition from new industrial spaces across India. It was particularly useful to visit Bangalore at a time when a new metro system was under construction, as well as a major new flyover designed to service high-tech firms at Electronics City. The research included discussions with community representatives which opened up some of the broader struggles over collective provision within the city. The Malaysian government has put considerable investment into creating the conditions for clusters of high-tech industry in Kuala Lumpur, but the research found that contrary to some of the accounts of Cyberjaya and the Multimedia Super Corridor, decision-makers have struggled to realise their vision, partly because of the limited supply of high-tech entrepreneurs within the national innovation system. Publications based on the research will be available shortly.