Why FW made in Thailand and not Indonesia?

[indodreaming]

IMHO Thailand for a start is more politically stable, so that makes investment in manufacturing facilities a lot more viable. The other thing of course is that there is already expertise in Thailand as they make Tuflite and the Global Surf Industries boards too. I'm certainly no expert on Indonesia but not much is manufactured there, about the only thing I see made in Indonesia here occasionally are rubber bicycle innertubes though most are made in China.

China's manufacturing is expanding and their quality is improving all the time, to be honest I just don't think Indonesia could compete with Thailand or China. One place that beats them all hands down is Taiwan but they are expensive and even they have moved a lot of their plants to China and made investments there. Nevertheless the majority of the better carbon fibre bicycle frames are still fabricated in Taiwan. The other problem with China is that they will rip off the big brand's that they manufacture under consignment make their own and flog them cheaply...Italian premium bike brand Pinarello are finding this out now as the market is being flooded with Chinarellos (they've copied the molds and made unauthorised copies using lower grade CF). Colnago by comparison kept their manufacturing in Taiwan and suffers none of this nonsense as the country being a democracy understands the concept of intellectual property and notions of contractual obligation. They also understand you don't bite the hand that feeds you. China doesn't and thinks they will eventually take over the market and compete with these premium brands by selling pirated rip off copies.

Thailand as well, being a democracy, understands these notions which all protect the investment and so it does indeed make them easier to deal with. While Indonesia is a new democracy they really aren't a mature one and I daresay similar problems as those in China would surface, they already make copies of all the FCS fins and anyone who's been there no doubt has seen the pirate copies of CDs and DVDs everywhere. They just don't have much manufacturing or technological expertise anyway. Thailand being cheaper than Taiwan are probably the best choice.

You make some good points, not all agree with but still.

I asked the general question in a Indonesian expat forum, (where there is a lot of clued on business type guys with experience in Indo) about why Indonesia doesn't manafacture like some other Asian countrys and I think it has more to do with two reasons.

1/Indonesia goverment just isn't as friendly to foreign investors/companys they dont make it easy to do business with red tape/laws etc While Thailand seems more relaxed in this area and others areas relating to westerners such as living/working/property.

2/ Corruption Indonesia just has so much corruption on ever level, i dont know a lot about Thailand but it must be better, corruption creates uncertainty something you don,t want when doing business.