Corporate regional functions in Asia Pacific K.C. Ho Abstract: Drawing on managerial interview material from a multi- industry sample, this paper sketches the locational dynamics of regional functions in the Asia Pacific. Generic factors like proximity to company affiliates and market access are discussed, along with industry specific dynamics for air delivery and online information services. The paper ends with an analysis of the inertia created by agglomeration effects of established places versus the competing pulls of new markets and production sites. Key Words: regional headquarters, multinational companies, agglomeration economies, producer services location Early economic growth in the Asia Pacific region was manufacturing led. The process started in the 1950s with Japan and later, Hong Kong, and involved Taiwan, Korea, and Singapore in the 1960s and 1970s, and in the 1980s linked Thailand and Malaysia. These economies became connected to the global manufacturing circuit through the efforts of indigenous companies (Japan and Korea), but primarily through the expansion of global subcontracting (especially for Hong Kong and Taiwan) and as a production base for multi- national companies (Singapore, Thailand, and Malaysia). This growth and internationalisation of manufacturing is followed by an expansion of producer services (accounting, legal counsel, management consulting, etc) developing as support services to multinational corporations (Noyelle, 1985: 3). In the case of Asia, this increase in producer services was not only a result of manufacturing expansion, but was necessitated by the wide socio-cultural heterogeneity in this region and the distances between trade centres (Sletmo, 1993: 6). Producer services therefore play a crucial role by mediating such differences and thereby reducing transactions costs and integrating local areas into the global production nexus. From the perspective of the firm, three decades of the geographical expansion of manufacturing into Asia Pacific has required a transformation in the organisational structure of key economic agents. Dunning (1993: 218, 220) following Ohmae’s (1990) concept of global localisation, has suggested Asia Pacific Viewpoint, Vol. 39, No. 2, August 1998 ISSN: 1360-7456, pp179–191 Victoria University of Wellington, 1998. Published by Blackwell Publishers, 108 Cowley Road, Oxford, OX4 1JF, UK and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA. Author: Dr. K.C. Ho, Department of Sociology, National University of Singapore, Kent Ridge, 0511 Singapore. E-mail: sochokc@nus.edu.sg