The "Maquila" Lessons and Implications to Thai-Myanmar Border Development

This paper aims to extract the lessons from the ?Maquila? history of the US-Mexico border development and to present their policy implications to the upcoming Thai-Myanmar border development. The ?Maquila? system, the Mexican ?in-bond processing? program is said to be the most successful case as border area  development in the world, since it has contributed a lot to the development of Mexican economy as well as of the US border cities from its spillover effects, though it has faced several challenges under fierce global competition. The Maquila-wise system is definitely required in Thai-Myanmar border development both for the job creations in Myanmar side and for the industrial reformation in Thailand side. Careful designing of in-bond processing system, enhancing outer-link connectivity from borders to central cities, and labor skill development are the policy implications obtained from the Maquila lessons.