Southeast Asia must embrace reforms for ‘China plus one’ to succeed

In recent years, Southeast Asian governments have viewed the “China plus one” strategy as their best chance to escape the middle-income trap. As global manufacturers looked to diversify away from China because of rising costs, trade tensions and supply-chain vulnerabilities, Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia seemed perfectly placed to benefit. The promise was simple and compelling: new factories would arrive, more formal jobs would be created, wages would rise in tandem with higher productivity...