In developing countries, the manufacturing sector is still believed as one of the fastest engines to improving the economic sector and narrowing the economic disparity compared to developed countries. However, for developing countries with so many limitations, some tradeoffs exist in terms of closing the economic gap through capitalizing on the manufacturing sector. While it is believed that local governments need to pay attention to managing the regional growth through market-driven

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... ng concentration, a lack of resources often makes the control function of the local governments impotent in terms of properly managing the development. This improper management usually leads to disastrous conditions which are contradictory to the development goal. This paper shows the tradeoffs needed to be addressed in Sukabumi Regency, as one of the low-income cities in the West Java Province that tried to improve regional development by using the manufacturing sector as the main engine. Quantitative methods using statistical and spatial distribution analysis were deployed to study the phenomenon. The results show that while manufacturing can absorb much low-skilled labor in urban areas, it also contributes to the severe traffic congestion in the urban corridor because of the unplanned distribution of locations.