The experience of industry policy in the wider Asian region contrasts significantly with many of the neoliberal policy prescriptions prevalent in Australia today. Using the automotive industry as a comparative case study, this article compares industry policy in three demographic and geographic giants of the region: China, India and Indonesia. China’s dominant position has benefited from a highly ‘interventionist’ industry policy which places strict conditions on foreign carmakers in joint ventures. This policy has also influenced the emergence of a thriving domestic industry, with state-owned enterprises leading the way. While India has also emerged as a major auto producer, its industry policy has moved away from the joint venture model since the 1990s, with fully foreign-owned operations now playing a much bigger role. In contrast, Indonesia retains a version of the joint venture model while local industry is dominated by Japanese capital. The record of industry policy in these countries challenges the idea that more ‘liberal’ economic systems lead to stronger domestic industries or firms.

This paper presents the work on developing a sliding-leg tripod as a programmable add-on device for manufacturing. The purpose is to enhance the capabilities of any machine by providing it with a more flexible range of motion. This device can be used as a toolhead for CNC machine tools and robots, or as a work stage for coordinate measuring machines and laser scanning systems. In this paper, system modelling, analysis and control of this device is presented. System modeling includes mobility study, kinematic model and inverse kinematics. System analysis includes workspace analysis, transmission ratio and stiffness analysis. System control includes path planning, joint space control and Cartesian space prediction. It is shown that the proposed device can provide flexibility and dexterity to machines.