International Journal of Advanced and Applied Sciences, 4(1) 2017, Pages: 110-115 Contents lists available at Science-Gate International Journal of Advanced and Applied Sciences Journal homepage: http://www.science-gate.com/IJAAS.html 110 Examining Inter-city connections in Southeast Asia based upon interlocking city network model Zeyun Li *, Sharifah Rohayah Sheikh Dawood Geography Section, School of Humanities, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang, Malaysia ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT Article history: Received 10 November 2016 Received in revised form 26 December 2016 Accepted 27 January 2017 In this paper, we employ an interlocking city network model to analyze the global urban network epitomized by advanced producer services firms in Southeast Asia. The purpose of this paper is aiming to examine inter-city connections of a wide range of nodes (cities) in this region thereby exploring a sub-network of world city network proposed by Globalization and World cities research network (GaWC) in Southeast Asia. Based upon interlocking network model, we collected relational data of the presence of 30 global advanced producer services firms from six sectors in a roster of Southeast Asian cities. Clearly, a multifarious inter-city connection with service value of cities is embodied in the relational matrix. In this regard, we can specifically measure the connectivity of each city through the office network of global advanced producer services firms, and identify most dominant cities embedded in world city network in Southeast Asia region, as well as hierarchical structures and regional tendencies of these selected cities by interweaving with global scale and local scale. Keywords: World city network Globalization Southeast Asia Advanced producer services firms Interlocking city network model © 2017 The Authors. Published by IASE. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). 1. Introduction *In the context of globalization, world cities in the developed nations are emerging in an unprecedented pace. This undisputed trend of the globalized economy is further diffused to Asia-Pacific countries in this millennium, especially some world cities in this region (Zhao et al., 2003; Zeyun and Dawood, 2016). Not surprisingly, Southeast Asia is deemed as one of the most vibrant districts in Asia- Pacific region, whereby it is geographically attracting notable transnational economy and information flows. These robust international interactions greatly enable local cities in Southeast Asia to embed in the economic globalization. Accordingly, the first major research problem is ascribed to the study area of world city research; there are less amounts of scholars paying attention to conceptualize and analyze world city formation in the region of Southeast Asia comprehensively. The only exceptions are derived from few researchers (Bunnell et al., 2002; 2006; Dick and Rimmer, 1998; Liu et al., 2016). In the classical study of world city formation in the prosperous city-state of Singapore, * Corresponding Author. Email Address: lizeyun@yahoo.com (Z. Li) https://doi.org/10.21833/ijaas.2017.01.016 2313-626X/© 2017 The Authors. Published by IASE. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/) this pivotal articulation tends to be deemed as the most populous and international oriented city in Southeast Asia. Not surprisingly, since unprecedented transformations of urban landscape, infrastructure system, as well as information and communication technology, this spectacular city- state is characterized as the predominant transit node and business hub involved in the global urban system (Dick and Rimmer, 2003). Meanwhile, Morshidi (2000) emphasized the importance of producer services development for creating miracle of world city status of Kuala Lumpur in this globalized and competitive era. The extraordinary competitive advantages of Kuala Lumpur has been increasingly configured though the social-spatial economy transformation as compared with some other rivalry in the arena of South-east Asia. In practice, the emergence of producer services industries driven by globalization in Malaysia dramatically reshape and reposition the relative employment composition and industry structure in this emerging country. Based upon this article, producer services development has spawned the reciprocal relationship with world city development. In particular the establishment of technology based producer services industry penetrating to local trade linkage and foreign export market could substantially stimulate its prestigious status of world city-ness. In this regard, I will focus on world city network formation in Southeast Asia region.