The rise of national-driven green industrial policies, along with a new mercantilist era, marked by fragmented international cooperation and protectionism, threatens the inclusive pursuit of sustainable industrialization. Meanwhile, for many small nations, many of the ‘green windows of opportunities’ cannot be reached without cross-border coordination. This paper therefore examines the institutional conditions necessary for the multilateral coordination of green industrial policy, arguing that developing nations must prioritize strategic regional coordination over mere integration to avoid competitive traps. While the benefits of crossborder industrial policy cooperation have long been discussed, less attention has been paid to the institutional frameworks enabling such coordination, particularly in regions with redundant and duplicating development strategies, weak political alignment, and competitive interests.

 

 

Using the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) as a case study, we derive four key insights: (1) well designed multilateral industrial policy cooperation does not undermine national autonomy but rather depends on strong domestic institutions and clear developmental visions; (2) issue-based cooperation can foster institutional linkages, building trust and enabling scalability in adversarial trade environments; (3) effective cooperation requires mechanisms to identify synergies, mitigate competitive risks, and depoliticize collaborative agendas; and (4) while lowinstitutionality/high-flexibility models offer adaptability, they risk replicating national policy limitations and may struggle to transcend foreign direct investment (FDI)-led industrialization. The ASEAN experience underscores both the potential and constraints of regional green industrial policy, offering lessons for developing economies aiming to seize green windows of opportunity. 

 

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