Producer Services in Cities of the Asia Pacific Economic Region : The Case of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Much attention has been given recently to the role and contribution of producer services in advanced economies. In most of these economies, producer services account for no less than 50 percent of employment in metropolitan areas. Evidently, the increase in the share of producer services in all employment has been well documented for Europe and for North America. Producer services represent one of the key new growth sectors, but in the context of the Asia Pacific economic region empirical work about how producer services are participating in, and shaping, the process of development remains to be undertaken. In the case of many developing countries in the Asia Pacific economic region grouping producer services are heavily represented in urban and metropolitan areas, which are more developed and functionally diverse. The study reported in this book is based on various debates concerning the interurban location of producer service activities. The overwhelming importance of face-to-face contact in both the acquisition of inputs and the delivery of the product to clients results in agglomeration-economies-maximising and transaction-cost-minimising in corporate activity complexes traditionally located in the CBD.