Unsustainable varieties of capitalism along the Thailand-Malaysia border? The role of institutional complementarities in regional development

This contribution aims to couple national institutional complementarities to issues of regional development and long-term sustainability in Southeast Asia's non-core regions. A comparison is made of Satun in Southern Thailand and Perlis in Northern Malaysia. Based on fieldwork data, the findings reveal that Malaysian institutional complementarities result from a key role of the state, leading to potentially ineffective forms of economic activity. On the Thai side, institutional complementarities give free reign to entrepreneurs, but they are less conducive for inclusive regional development and addressing environmental concerns. Based on the case studies, findings of a more general applicability highlight two additional issues. First, balanced regional development requires a set of institutional complementarities that integrates economic growth with distributional strategies. Second, more attention should be paid to the adaptability of institutional arrangements as they may actually "lock in" regions in an unsustainable development trajectory in the long run, be it in economic, social or ecological terms.