In 2024, Takenaka Corporation and Tractus, a business strategy consulting and operations management firm with vast experience supporting multinational companies in making decisions on where to locate their investments, established a collaborative partnership to conduct site selection seminars across Asia.
In a world characterized by growing geopolitical tensions, multinational companies are under pressure to read and navigate the choppy waters of world politics. Whether it is the effects of trade frictions between the United States and China, the prospects of rising tariffs, or the impact of new industrial policies that promise government subsidies, tailored tax breaks, and other types of public-sponsored incentives, manufacturing companies all over the world are reconsidering how to structure or, in many cases, re-structure their supply chains to mitigate these risks and hedge against the prevailing geopolitical uncertainty.
For companies planning large capital investments in new manufacturing facilities, site selection emerges as a crucial activity in their decision-making processes. As the old mantra “location, location, location” emphatically suggests, the location of the site where a company builds its new production plant matters tremendously. However, in a region as politically, economically and culturally diverse as Southeast Asia, finding the best location to build a new manufacturing facility is fraught with challenges. These can assume the form of land availability, insufficient access to critical utilities, problems related to land zoning, project licensing processes, or the availability of capable design and construction companies.
It was precisely to raise awareness to this set of challenges that Takenaka Corporation and Tractus decided to launch a series of site selection seminars under the title “Finding the Right Manufacturing Location”. In 2024, a total of 6 seminars took place in Japan, Singapore and Thailand. The first three sessions took place in Tokyo, Nagoya and Osaka in Japan at the end of January. To organize them, we counted with the support of local partners such as the Japan Institute for Overseas Investment and the Osaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry. The target audience for these inaugural seminars were Japanese manufacturing companies looking to invest overseas, especially in Southeast Asia and India. On 11 June, a new seminar was conducted in Singapore in partnership with the British Chamber of Commerce. This was followed by another seminar on 24 July in Bangkok, Thailand, and a final one Singapore on 17 October where Takenaka Corporation and Tractus partnered with Connexus Global, an executive search firm focusing on hiring senior executives for management positions in procurement, supply chain and capital investment managers. The seminars organized in Singapore and Thailand reached diverse audiences mostly composed of representatives from Western firms.
Each seminar was designed to provide a comprehensive overview of the importance of industrial location and site selection strategy alongside information about best practices in design, engineering and construction within the manufacturing sector. By offering concrete case-studies and practical examples of what went wrong in other projects, “Finding the Right Manufacturing Location” shed light on the importance for companies to conduct a serious site selection analysis ahead of any major capital investment decision to both map potential risks to their investments and develop risk mitigation strategies.
Given the success of these events, Takenaka Corporation and Tractus Asia look forward to holding new sessions in 2025. Our plan is to expand to new audiences by continuing to conduct seminars in Asia and explore opportunities in Europe and the United States.
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