The automotive sector is considered vital for promoting the economy. Likewise, Cambodia also prioritizes this sector. Moreover, Cambodia aims to become a production hub to export automotive parts to both regional and global markets. However, Cambodia has very few automotive assembly industries due to many complicating factors. What factors influences automotive investment? And how about those factors in Cambodia compared to Indonesia and Thailand? Thus, this study seeks to (1) explore a comprehensive understanding of factors affecting automotive investment and (2) provide implications to address these key factors of Cambodia compared to Indonesia and Thailand. For the methods of this study, the first stage is to write codes in R program for extracting journal articles related to factor affecting automotive industry, by selecting only title, doi, and issued. We found that a total of 95 journal articles related to the study were retrieved using the rcrossref, tidyr, dplyr, and rstatix packages in the R-program and RStudio version 4.4.1. After screening with the selection criteria, 26 studies were identified. Finally, 11 of the 26 papers were evaluated for eligibility and were analyzed to identify key factors affecting automotive investment. The second stage is to group and collect the existing data for each factor from reliable sources in order to compare these factors in the three ASEAN countries. The study was conducted for six months from July to December 2024. The findings showed that a promising landscape of Cambodia for automotive investment has such as a strong political stability, a high economic growth rate, tax incentives, a young workforce, attractive labor costs, growing industrial capacity, rising domestic demand, and a stable business environment. However, Cambodia must address infrastructure and bureaucratic challenges. The infrastructure of Cambodia is in developing stage, compared to Indonesia and Thailand. Bureaucratic inefficiencies are able to hinder business operations, making it difficult for companies to navigate regulatory processes efficiently. The following solutions are proposed to the Royal Government of Cambodia such as (1) prioritize strategic investments in infrastructure projects and continue its efforts on upgrading infrastructure, including transportation, digital connectivity, and utilities; (2) streamline bureaucratic processes in order to reduce complexity and length of administrative processes; and (3) adopt digital solutions and simplify regulatory frameworks. The integration of digital solutions into regulatory and business operations can improve transparency, reduce corruption, and increase efficiency.
Published in | Journal of World Economic Research (Volume 14, Issue 2) |
DOI | 10.11648/j.jwer.20251402.14 |
Page(s) | 147-158 |
Creative Commons |
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited. |
Copyright |
Copyright © The Author(s), 2025. Published by Science Publishing Group |
Automotive Sector, Automotive Investment, Automotive Industry, ASEAN Countries, Factor Analysis, Affecting Factors
Process | Description | Number of Papers |
---|---|---|
Identification | Record identified by using the rcrossref, tidyr, dplyr, and rstatix packages in the R-program and the RStudio. | 95 |
Screening | Papers approved after a peer-review process and papers published in an indexed journal issued between 2003 and 2024. | 60 |
Papers that had title on factors affecting something in automotive industry. | 48 | |
Papers that addressed factors affecting automotive industry. | 26 | |
Eligibility | Full text assessed for eligibility | 11 |
Included | Studies included. | 11 |
No. | Key Factors | Sources of Collected Data |
---|---|---|
Macro-level factors | ||
1 | Political environment | World Bank (2023) |
2 | Economic environment | Asian Development Bank (2023); ASEAN Secretariat (2023); International Monetary Fund (2023); World Bank (2023) |
3 | Financial environment | World Bank (2023) |
4 | Tax and incentive | Council for the Development of Cambodia [CDC] |
5 | Infrastructure | CDC; Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of Cambodia (2024); World Bank (2023) |
6 | Labor | Asian Development Bank (2023); ASEAN Secretariat (2023); CDC; World Bank (2023) |
Micro-level factors | ||
7 | Industrial capacity | Royal Government of Cambodia [RGC] (2022) |
8 | Markets | CDC and Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade of Australian government [DFAT] (2023); International Organization of Motor Vehicle Manufacturers [OICA] (2019) |
9 | Competition | Ministry of Industry, Science, Technology and Innovation [MISTI] (2024); Rakkarn (2024) |
10 | Supply chain | Rakkarn (2024); RGC (2022) |
Description | Cambodia | Indonesia | Thailand |
---|---|---|---|
Political stability indicator in percentile rank | 44.81% | 31.60% | 29.20% |
Control of corruption indicator in percentile rank | 9.91% | 37.70% | 35.80% |
Government effectiveness in percentile rank | 36.79% | 66.00% | 58.00% |
Description | Cambodia | Indonesia | Thailand |
---|---|---|---|
Economic growth rate in 2023 | 5.40% | 5.05% | 1.88% |
Inflation rate in 2023 | 2.10% | 3.70% | 1.20% |
Trade agreements in 2022 | 19 | 45 | 39 |
Ease of doing business (rank in 2019 among 190) | 144 | 73 | 21 |
Description | Cambodia | Indonesia | Thailand |
---|---|---|---|
Real interest rate | 2.48% | 4.59% | 2.81% |
Domestic credit to the private sector in the percentage of GDP | 180.00% | 35.30% | 156.30% |
Description | Cambodia | Indonesia | Thailand |
---|---|---|---|
Infrastructure score in 2023 | 2.1 | 2.9 | 3.7 |
Logistic Performance Index (LPI) score in 2023 | 2.4 | 3.0 | 3.5 |
Description | Cambodia | Indonesia | Thailand |
---|---|---|---|
Population in 2022 (million) | 16.6 | 275.8 | 69.9 |
Population growth rate in 2022 (%) | 1.4 | 1.2 | 0.2 |
Number of labor force in 2022 (million) | 9.1 | 143.7 | 39.9 |
Labor force participation rate in 2019 (%) | 69.3 | 67.5 | 67.5 |
Employment in industry:% of total employment in 2019 | 27.9 | 22.4 | 22.8 |
Minimum wage in 2021 (USD) | 192 | 270 | 262 |
Description | Cambodia | Indonesia | Thailand |
---|---|---|---|
New passenger car sales (a) | 1,275 | 785,539 | 468,638 |
New commercial vehicle sales (b) | 3,292 | 4,947 | 538,914 |
Total new vehicle sales (a + b) | 4,567 | 30,486 | 1,007,552 |
ASEAN | Association of Southeast Asian Nations |
CDC | Council for the Development of Cambodia |
DFAT | Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade of Australian Government |
DOI | Digital Objective Identifiers |
FDI | Foreign Direct Investment |
GDP | Gross Domestic Product |
LPI | Logistic Performance Index |
MISTI | Ministry of Industry, Science, Technology and Innovation |
OICA | International Organization of Motor Vehicle Manufacturers |
RGC | Royal Government of Cambodia |
SEZ | Special Economic Zone |
UNCTAD | United Nations Conference on Trade and Development |
USD | United States Dollar |
VAT | Value-added Tax |
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APA Style
Hy, T., Hin, L., Nhean, S., Seng, B. (2025). Factors Influencing Automotive Investment in Three ASEAN Countries. Journal of World Economic Research, 14(2), 147-158. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.jwer.20251402.14
ACS Style
Hy, T.; Hin, L.; Nhean, S.; Seng, B. Factors Influencing Automotive Investment in Three ASEAN Countries. J. World Econ. Res. 2025, 14(2), 147-158. doi: 10.11648/j.jwer.20251402.14
@article{10.11648/j.jwer.20251402.14, author = {Thy Hy and Lyhour Hin and Sophea Nhean and Bandith Seng}, title = {Factors Influencing Automotive Investment in Three ASEAN Countries }, journal = {Journal of World Economic Research}, volume = {14}, number = {2}, pages = {147-158}, doi = {10.11648/j.jwer.20251402.14}, url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.jwer.20251402.14}, eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.jwer.20251402.14}, abstract = {The automotive sector is considered vital for promoting the economy. Likewise, Cambodia also prioritizes this sector. Moreover, Cambodia aims to become a production hub to export automotive parts to both regional and global markets. However, Cambodia has very few automotive assembly industries due to many complicating factors. What factors influences automotive investment? And how about those factors in Cambodia compared to Indonesia and Thailand? Thus, this study seeks to (1) explore a comprehensive understanding of factors affecting automotive investment and (2) provide implications to address these key factors of Cambodia compared to Indonesia and Thailand. For the methods of this study, the first stage is to write codes in R program for extracting journal articles related to factor affecting automotive industry, by selecting only title, doi, and issued. We found that a total of 95 journal articles related to the study were retrieved using the rcrossref, tidyr, dplyr, and rstatix packages in the R-program and RStudio version 4.4.1. After screening with the selection criteria, 26 studies were identified. Finally, 11 of the 26 papers were evaluated for eligibility and were analyzed to identify key factors affecting automotive investment. The second stage is to group and collect the existing data for each factor from reliable sources in order to compare these factors in the three ASEAN countries. The study was conducted for six months from July to December 2024. The findings showed that a promising landscape of Cambodia for automotive investment has such as a strong political stability, a high economic growth rate, tax incentives, a young workforce, attractive labor costs, growing industrial capacity, rising domestic demand, and a stable business environment. However, Cambodia must address infrastructure and bureaucratic challenges. The infrastructure of Cambodia is in developing stage, compared to Indonesia and Thailand. Bureaucratic inefficiencies are able to hinder business operations, making it difficult for companies to navigate regulatory processes efficiently. The following solutions are proposed to the Royal Government of Cambodia such as (1) prioritize strategic investments in infrastructure projects and continue its efforts on upgrading infrastructure, including transportation, digital connectivity, and utilities; (2) streamline bureaucratic processes in order to reduce complexity and length of administrative processes; and (3) adopt digital solutions and simplify regulatory frameworks. The integration of digital solutions into regulatory and business operations can improve transparency, reduce corruption, and increase efficiency. }, year = {2025} }
TY - JOUR T1 - Factors Influencing Automotive Investment in Three ASEAN Countries AU - Thy Hy AU - Lyhour Hin AU - Sophea Nhean AU - Bandith Seng Y1 - 2025/08/28 PY - 2025 N1 - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.jwer.20251402.14 DO - 10.11648/j.jwer.20251402.14 T2 - Journal of World Economic Research JF - Journal of World Economic Research JO - Journal of World Economic Research SP - 147 EP - 158 PB - Science Publishing Group SN - 2328-7748 UR - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.jwer.20251402.14 AB - The automotive sector is considered vital for promoting the economy. Likewise, Cambodia also prioritizes this sector. Moreover, Cambodia aims to become a production hub to export automotive parts to both regional and global markets. However, Cambodia has very few automotive assembly industries due to many complicating factors. What factors influences automotive investment? And how about those factors in Cambodia compared to Indonesia and Thailand? Thus, this study seeks to (1) explore a comprehensive understanding of factors affecting automotive investment and (2) provide implications to address these key factors of Cambodia compared to Indonesia and Thailand. For the methods of this study, the first stage is to write codes in R program for extracting journal articles related to factor affecting automotive industry, by selecting only title, doi, and issued. We found that a total of 95 journal articles related to the study were retrieved using the rcrossref, tidyr, dplyr, and rstatix packages in the R-program and RStudio version 4.4.1. After screening with the selection criteria, 26 studies were identified. Finally, 11 of the 26 papers were evaluated for eligibility and were analyzed to identify key factors affecting automotive investment. The second stage is to group and collect the existing data for each factor from reliable sources in order to compare these factors in the three ASEAN countries. The study was conducted for six months from July to December 2024. The findings showed that a promising landscape of Cambodia for automotive investment has such as a strong political stability, a high economic growth rate, tax incentives, a young workforce, attractive labor costs, growing industrial capacity, rising domestic demand, and a stable business environment. However, Cambodia must address infrastructure and bureaucratic challenges. The infrastructure of Cambodia is in developing stage, compared to Indonesia and Thailand. Bureaucratic inefficiencies are able to hinder business operations, making it difficult for companies to navigate regulatory processes efficiently. The following solutions are proposed to the Royal Government of Cambodia such as (1) prioritize strategic investments in infrastructure projects and continue its efforts on upgrading infrastructure, including transportation, digital connectivity, and utilities; (2) streamline bureaucratic processes in order to reduce complexity and length of administrative processes; and (3) adopt digital solutions and simplify regulatory frameworks. The integration of digital solutions into regulatory and business operations can improve transparency, reduce corruption, and increase efficiency. VL - 14 IS - 2 ER -