This is a very good half hour video by the Asianometry YouTube channel. Not only you can see many parallels in the auto-assembling industry of Pakistan vs the now-extinct auto industry of Australia, you can see many contrasts also e.g. worker unions and high wages in Australia vs no unions and low wages of Pakistan. Similarities are the high influence the automotive companies exercise on the provincial and national level policy making.

Also one finding I’d put much weight into is very striking that foreign companies are only interested for a while, if you use that opportunity to create & establish your own brands, R&D, manpower and other ecosystem to the level the you are an exporting nation, only then can the market feasibility continue. Otherwise the foreign principals will quickly get bored or pursue other opportunities or if continue to rely on them one day they may cease & desist or bankrupt in their own home country and you as the importing nation will suffer. Japan, Korea, China and India quickly absorbed the knowledge, created their own brands and achieved the status of knowledge-creation, hence their auto industries are doing good, otherwise Australia, UK and Malaysia are examples of what can go wrong. Unfortunately it seems like Pakistan’s auto industry also soon to follow.

Superb piece. Keep it up.