Multilateral Linkages in East Asian Manufacturing: Evidence from a Technology-based Classification

Abstract

Purpose: This paper examines how inter-industry and inter-country interconnectedness in East Asia’s production chains evolved during 2007–2023, with emphasis on technological specialisation and shifts in the centrality of countries and sectors. Research design, data and methodology: Using the Asian Development Bank’s multiregional input–output for 2007–2023, fourteen manufacturing industries are regrouped into a technology-based classification to more clearly highlight the region’s core capabilities while simplifying cross-country comparison. Average propagation length is computed under demand-driven and supply-driven input–output models to track how shocks transmit forward and backward through production chains and to identify sectors that amplify or dampen spillovers. Network measures and visualisations summarise salient changes in inter-industry and inter-country linkages. Results: The regional production structure is broadly stable, indicating persistent interdependence, yet gradual reconfiguration is evident. Vietnam’s high-technology industries gain influence and increasingly function as hubs alongside established nodes in the regional network. These shifts occur without a wholesale rewiring of link patterns, suggesting incremental rather than disruptive restructuring. Conclusions: East Asia’s production networks exhibit resilience together with technological upgrading and functional diversification. The rising prominence of Vietnam’s high-tech sectors points to a slow rebalancing of influence across countries and industries, even as the overall architecture remains intact.