The changing face of the electronics industry in the periphery: the case of Malaysia.

The article discusses the changing face of the electronics industry in Malaysia. The growth of the semiconductor industry in Malaysia is the most spectacular event in the country's industrialization. This article examines empirically the growth of the semiconductor industry in Penang within the context of this transition in the new international division of labour. In theoretical terms it focuses on the exchange-productionist debate on the role of transnational capital in third world industrialization. More specifically, it adopts the more rigorous internationalization of capital thesis as the appropriate framework for understanding the impact of transnational and local factors, including the role of the state, on local industrialization. The prime concern is to offer a description of changes in the patterns of growth and stagnation of the local semiconductor industry in terms of cycles and rhythms in the industrialization of capital and the competition amongst capitals in peripheral industrialization. Transnational capital is a force for the transformation of work and development during the transition in peripheral capitalist formations.