Ks. Lee et al., Costs of infrastructure deficiencies for manufacturing in Nigerian, Indonesian and Thai cities, URBAN STUD, 36(12), 1999, pp. 2135-2149
This paper is a sequel to an earlier paper on Nigeria published in this jou
rnal, Using the fresh results obtained from the sample survey of manufactur
ing establishments conducted in Indonesia and Thailand (a sample of 290 and
300 establishments, respectively), the authors contrast and compare the fi
ndings from these new data with those of an earlier study on Nigeria, The m
ain elements of comparisons include: the extent and incidence of public inf
rastructure deficiencies; the extent of manufacturers' private provision re
sponses to the deficiencies; the capital shares of various private infrastr
ucture investments including electric power, water, telecommunications, tra
nsport and waste disposal; and, costs of producing their own electricity an
d water, The extent of public infrastructure deficiencies and private provi
sions varies across the countries and firm sizes. For example, 92 per cent
of the Nigerian firms had their own generators to supplement the inadequate
public supply, while the figure was 66 per cent in Indonesia and only 6 pe
r cent in Thailand. However, the quality of electric power in Thailand was
not very different from that of Indonesia. The total share of capital inves
tment in private infrastructure was 16 per cent of the total capital in the
case of the Indonesian firms which is comparable with 14 per cent in the c
ase of the Nigerian firms, but is twice that of the Thai firms. The private
costs of infrastructure deficiencies are substantial and the burdens are m
uch greater for small firms than large firms, which has a negative implicat
ion for the birth and growth of firms, hence employment and income generati
on, in cities in developing countries.