Ken Loo, Garment Manufacturers Association of Cambodia Secretary General, said that foreign buyers had been returning to order garment from Cambodia but some buyers were scared to contract Cambodian factories after the series of strikes that occurred in September.

He also added that there are 20 new factories opened, which need to employ between 300 and 500 garment workers each, but the increase in labor forces is likely to increase as production there rose.

The government set the minimum wage for workers at US$61 per month, but protest leaders were demanding US$93$ per month.

More than 20 days, around 200 Cambodian garment workers have demonstrated outside Blossom Century factory in Takeo province, Bati district, in an attempt to appeal for the re-installation of their three laid-off union leader and representatives.

They have started beginning to be on strike since September 10, when their representatives were fired from factory after they had been selected as leaders of the newly-created Khmer Youth Union Confederation because the factory owner does not allow the garment workers to form the worker union in the firm.

The factory’s representative told local media that the factory has filed for a court injunction that, if issued, would striking employees to return to work within 48 hours.

Sok Sopheak , MoC foreign trade director general, was quoted by the Post as saying that sector growth was the result of recovering economies in foreign countries and government attempts to link suppliers with foreign buyers.

According to statistics from the Ministry of Commerce, Cambodia exported $1.062 billion in garments in the period. From January to May 2009, the export rose $953 million.

Sok Sopheak added that “we have made it more convenient for garment suppliers by cutting down on unnecessary procedures and paperwork”. “This is the internal factor for growing exports, and the external factor is the recovery of the global economy.”

Kang Chandararot, Cambodia Institute for Development Study President said that “many garment factories who survived the low demand caused by the crisis last year are now strong and competitive as the sector recovers, but those who ran away lost their chance to turn a profit.”

Eang Veng Sun, the Phnom Penh Autonomous Port’s deputy director general, was quoted by the Phnom Penh Post as saying that “we hope shipments this year will increase more than last year because the economy has been recovering significantly,”

Statistics from Port show that some 20,997 TEUs (20-foot equivalent units) were transported through the capital’s port in the five months through May, compared to 14,964 TEUs last year.

Month-to-month increases were also recorded, with 4,783 TEUs shipped in May, compared to 4,207 in April, the statistics showed.

The recovery was driven by the country’s main economic pillars: agriculture, construction, garments and tourism, ADB officials said Tuesday, as they released the bank’s economic outlook for the year.

“Garments, tourism and construction have all apparently turned the corner in the first quarter of this year,” Eric Sidgwick, a senior economist at the ADB, told reporters. “And if there are further improvements in irrigation, seed and fertilizer use, one could hope that agricultural production could be a bit higher this year than last year. So the prospects of the year look good.”

Garments were boosted by an increase in US retail market demand in the first quarter of the year, while tourist arrivals for the same period increased, especially with visitors from China and South Korea. The recoveries of the economies in Asia are expected to bolster Cambodia’s construction sector, as more investors return after the global downturn.

Ros Silva, deputy director general of the Ministry of Economy and Finance, said Tuesday the government had forecast the same figures for growth this year and next. The growth follows a recession in 2009, when the economy shrank 2 percent.

But Sidgwick said Tuesday international competition will increase in the next year, requiring the government to focus on the promotion of the private sector, integrated regional and global markets and effective economic policy.

Source: VOA Khmer

The Ministry of Commerce released data; it shows that the nine months of 2009, garment exported to the US and EU dropped by 28.7 percent and 7.46 percent respectively in the earlier 9 months of 2009.

The total garment exports for the period are valued at US$1.97 billion.

Decline in garment export is because of the world economic recession pushing for low demand for garments from USA and EU, where are the main international market for Cambodia’s textile productivities.

30,000 workers lost their jobs and 77 garment factories closed in the first three quarters of 2009. In addition, 53 factories suspended their operations in this period.

The factory suspended its operation on October 08, leaving some 1,800 employees jobless in the period of two months. Reportedly, workers were to receive $12 a month.

The Post quoted Vayu Vavadhana, chief officer of the litigation office at the Ministry of Labour, as saying Monday that the decision to schedule new talks was made following the gathering of about 1,000 Tack Fat workers in front of his ministry.

“They promised us that they invited the company party to solve the problem. I believe the company will send someone without enough authority to negotiate with us. We still worry,” Meas Somphors, president of the Coalition of Cambodia Apparel Workers Democratic Union, was quoted by the Daily as saying.

“We will call the workers’ representative and the factory owner to come to the Ministry of Labour on Tuesday to reconcile their conflict,” said Vavadhana, adding: “If they still disagree, their case will be sent to the Arbitration Council again,” according to the Post.

More than 400,000 jobs in the textile industry fuelled the hopes of many young women whose earnings in the city helped support their extended families in the countryside.

Ny Sopheak: “I worked in the packing section of a textile factory. I earned sometimes $60 a month from the factory work and I sent $10 a month to my father.”

But that factory, like dozens of others, has now closed. The global recession scared investors and shut down factories.

Twenty-three-year-old Ny Sopheak, like 50,000 other Cambodians, recently lost her job in the garment industry.

This in a country where not having a job can mean not eating, or perhaps just having one meal a day.

Ny Sopheak: “Since I don’t have enough food I feel so weak and I often get sick.”

Today Ny is sharing one egg and some rice with her roommate, Horn Devy who also lost her factory job. That’s one egg between two people. Horn feels she can’t go on much longer.

Horn Devy: “It’s very difficult. It’s a hard life, living in a small room like this.”

Horn is only 15 years old. She was sent to work to help out her family, small time farmers and basket weavers who can’t make ends meet.

Horn’s mother says she worries about her, so young, and away from the family. Even so, she wanted Horn to earn money, so that her brothers can finish school.

But having lost her job, Horn has gone from providing for her family to becoming an extra burden. Asked how she feels about this, she says,

Horn Devy: “It’s hard to say. I am starving. When you have no food it’s very difficult to feel anything.”

Her story is unusual because of her young age, but all over Cambodia’s capital there are women who are falling into abject poverty as they lose their jobs in the textile factories.

Meanwhile, thousands of factory workers have turned to the streets to pressure the government to guarantee their jobs, their incomes, and their access to food.

And while Cambodia has been hard-hit, other countries are worried too. Guaranteeing the availability of food for everyone is now an urgent issue for governments across Asia-Pacific.

Many governments are now looking at how to invest in agriculture, to stem tide of migration towards the cities, and to help make food more affordable.

But textile factories too, are needed. If they keep closing, experts worry that much of the progress achieved in places like Cambodia, in education, in economic development, and in human rights, could be at risk; and with it the future of the entire generation.

Information for this report was provided by APTN.

(The original article is from VOA news)