Union calls for stable rent for workers
May 7th, 2013, The Cambodia Herald, Business & Commercial Development, Economics, Exports, Garment Industry, Industry, Social Concerns, Textiles, Trade
The Cambodian Confederation of Unions (CCU) urged all apartment landlords to not increase their rent because garment and footwear employees get only a basic salary of $80 per month.
A statement issued Monday said the wage increase from $61 per month to $80 will be implemented in late May, asking the landlords nearby the factories not to raise their rent due to the increase. …
Currently around 500,000 workers are employed in 500 different garment and shoe factories around the country.
Cambodia textile exports in the first quarter of 2013 reached $1.34 billion compared to $1.14 billion in the same period last year.
Last year, the country’s garment exports were worth $4.6 billion.
The Cambodia Herald Staff
http://www.thecambodiaherald.com/cambodia/detail/1?page=13&token=NzI2NDk4N2M2YTA
Cambodia-U.S. trade flat in Q1
May 3rd, 2013, Xinhuanet News, Business & Commercial Development, Economics, Exports, Garment Industry, Imports, Industry, International Relations, Textiles, Trade
The two-way trade volume between Cambodia and the United States valued at 758 million U.S. dollars in the first three months of this year, up only 0.8 percent compared with 752 million U.S. dollars over the same period last year, the statistics of the U.S. Department of Commerce showed Friday.
The United States is Cambodia’s largest export destination. During the January-March period this year, Cambodia’s exports to the U.S. were worth 695 million U.S. dollars, up 0.3 percent, while the country’s imports from the United States were 63 million U.S. dollars, up 7 percent, the report said. …
Xinhua News Staff
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/business/2013-05/03/c_132357935.htm
Cambodia’s garment exports up 17 pct in Q1
April 26th, 2013, Xinhua News, Business & Commercial Development, Economics, Exports, Garment Industry, Industry, International Relations, Textiles, Trade
Cambodia exported garment and textile products in equivalent to 1.34 billion U.S. dollars in the first quarter of 2013, up 17 percent from 1.14 billion U.S. dollars at the same period last year, the Commerce Ministry’s report showed Friday. …
Garment industry is the country’s largest income earner, representing more than 80 percent of the country’s exports.
The sector consists of more than 300 factories, employing about 350,000 workers.
The whole year of 2012, the country exported garment products in equivalent to 4.6 billion U.S. dollars, up 8 percent year-on- year.
Xinhua News Staff
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/business/2013-04/26/c_132342123.htm
Union Plan Massive Demonstration in Phnom Penh
April 25th, 2013, The Cambodia Daily, Garment Industry, Labor, Textiles
Four of Cambodia’s independent and opposition-aligned unions have informed the Phnom Penh municipality that they plan to gather 20,000 people on May 1 to march from Olympic Stadium to the National Assembly. …
Chin Chan, P. 18
The Cambodia Daily
606 New Companies Opened in Cambodia in Q1, Down 33 pct
April 23rd, 2013, Global Times, Agriculture & Agri-business, Agro-Industry, Business & Commercial Development, Construction, Domestic Investment, Economics, Garment Industry, Industry, Infrastructure, International Relations, Textiles, Tourism
Cambodia had granted operating licenses to 606 new companies in the first quarter of this year, a 33 percent decrease compared with the 904 firms at the same period last year, the Commerce Ministry’s report showed Tuesday. …
Yim Rom, an official at the ministry’s statistics and planning department, said the drop in new business registration was due to the ministry’s restrictions on registration procedures by thoroughly examining proposed companies’ business plans in order to ensure fair competition and to avoid duplicated trademarks. …
In the whole year of 2012, Cambodia granted operating licenses to 3,385 new firms, a 9 percent rise year-on-year, the commerce report said.
Xinhua News Staff
http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/776875.shtml#.UXY28rXTxe8
ILO Says Fire Safety Measures Lacking in Garment Sector
April 12th, 2013, The Cambodia Daily, Business & Commercial Development, Garment Industry, Industry, International Relations, Labor, Social Concerns, Textiles
Cambodia’s garment industry is experiencing a worrying rise in fire safety violations as factories struggle to cope with a sharp increase in the number of orders they are receiving, the International Labor Organization’s (ILO) Better Factories Cambodia program (BFC) said in a report on Thursday.
The ILO also said that the industry was giving workers excessive amounts of overtime—defined as more than two hours extra per day—and that there was a lack of improvement to factors that contribute to episodes of mass fainting. …
Despite the ILO’s repeated visits to the 130 factories, “improvements are not being made in many areas,” the report continued. For example, ventilation and air circulation in factories had worsened over the period, as had work place cleanliness and functioning toilets. …
Dene-Hern Chen
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/ilo-says-fire-safety-measures-lacking-in-garment-sector-18628/
Cambodian Exports to EU See Rapid Growth in 2012
April 11th, 2013, The Cambodia Daily, Business & Commercial Development, Disputed Land, Economic Land Concessions, Economics, Garment Industry, Industry, International Relations, Labor, Land Tenure, Social Concerns, Textiles
Cambodia’s exports to the European Union (E.U.) grew to $2.32 billion in 2012, a 23 percent increase compared to the previous year, according to the E.U.’s latest trade figures.
The figures, released this week by the European Commission’s trade office, testify to the region’s growing role as a key trading partner for Cambodia, thanks to the E.U.’s Everything But Arms (EBA) trade scheme, which lets Cambodia and a few dozen other developing countries export most goods to member states without tariffs or quotas.
According to figures, exports to the E.U. grew twice as much as exports to any other of Cambodia’s trading partners in 2012. And economists say that it would not be surprising if exports to the E.U. soon made up half of all Cambodia’s exports, with garments leading the way. …
Of the $5.49 billion worth of goods Cambodia exported last year, according to figures from the Commerce Ministry’s Cam-Control department, 42 percent went to the E.U., up from 35 percent in 2011. The remainder of Cambodia’s exports mostly went to the U.S., with smaller amounts going to Japan, China, South Korea and other countries in South East Asia. …
Zsombor Peter, P.1
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/cambodian-exports-to-eu-see-rapid-growth-in-2012-18329/
Monitoring for Nothing: Is the ILO’s ‘Better Factories’ programme failing the Kingdom’s garment workers?
April 9th, 2013, Southeast Asia Globe, Business & Commercial Development, Garment Industry, Industry, International Relations, Labor, Social Concerns, Textiles
The United Nations in Cambodia has taken a beating in recent months. The UN-backed Khmer Rouge tribunal has been plagued by high-profile resignations and accusations of political interference. Elsewhere human rights activists have criticised the UN’s failure to take a firm stance against an increasingly intolerant government.
In February, the international body took another punch when academics from Stanford University attacked one of its flagship programmes in Cambodia. In conjunction with experts from the Worker Rights Consortium (WRC), the academics openly questioned Better Factories Cambodia (BFC) – a much-lauded UN monitoring and reporting initiative launched in 2001 to improve working conditions in the Kingdom’s garment industry – in a report titled Monitoring in the Dark. …
“Cambodia is internationally branded as a sweatshop-free country thanks to BFC’s inspections, but the impact of the programme on workers’ well-being is far from glorious,” said Bent Gehrt, WRC’s Southeast Asia field director and co-author of the report. “While all neighbouring countries have witnessed important wage raises without any ‘Better Factories’ programme, real wages in the Cambodian garment sector have fallen by 16.6% over the past decade. Workers are poorer today than they were ten years ago, and the vast majority is now employed on short-term contracts. Impoverishment and job insecurity pushed them to accept excessive overtime in factories where basic health and security standards are often not even met. Under such circumstances, no one should wonder why mass faintings have become daily news in Cambodian newspapers.” …
Is the UN monitoring body toothless when faced with labour rights violations? “That’s the whole farce of the system as it is currently designed,” said David Welsh, Cambodia country director of the American Centre for International Labour Solidarity (ACILS), a US non-profit organisation supporting trade unions in developing countries. “BFC inspectors do a pretty good job at highlighting abuses in factories, but no one is obligated to take any action following their reports. BFC is just a monitoring programme with zero ability to enforce any decision. That is its mandate and deception is therefore huge for those who expect it to go beyond that.” …
Frédéric Janssens
http://sea-globe.com/monitoring-for-nothing/
Wages will increase following economic growth
April 2nd, 2013, The Cambodia Herald, Business & Commercial Development, Economics, Garment Industry, Industry, Textiles
Hun Sen said salaries for civil servants and garment workers will increase yearly coinciding with the growth in the economy.
Speaking at a graduation ceremony for the Royal University of Phnom Penh (RUPP) at the Koh Pich center on Tuesday, he said during the general assembly of the Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) last month, it was agreed that wages will not be raised by 20 percent every year, but depending on economic growth. …
The Cambodia Herald Staff
http://www.thecambodiaherald.com/cambodia/detail/1?page=15&token=Y2MzZjI4MzI3MzI
Labor committee announces minimum wage
March 29th, 2013, The Cambodia Herald, Business & Commercial Development, Economics, Garment Industry, Industry, Labor, Social Concerns, Textiles
The Labor Advisory Committee issued a joint statement on the decision to raise wages from $61 to $80 per month for garment and footwear workers.
The statement was announced Friday, after a meeting between factory employers, union leaders and Labor Minister, Vong Soth. …
The wage provision of $80 a month has to be adopted on May 1st. …
Ath Thon, President of the Coalition of Cambodian Apparel Workers’ Democratic Union (C.CAWDU), who forced himself to accept the decision, said,” the decision to increase wage by $80 per month for workers was made by the government.”
“We have to adopt this decision even though we don’t like it,” he said. …
The Cambodia Herald Staff
http://www.thecambodiaherald.com/cambodia/detail/1?page=13&token=MTc2MjI0Y2JlMjV
Low pay fuels anger among Cambodia’s garment workers
March 14th, 2013, AFP, Channel News Asia, Business & Commercial Development, Foreign Investment, Garment Industry, Industry, Labor, News Source, Textiles, Trade
As night falls thousands of weary workers stream from textile factories that fan out across Phnom Penh’s outskirts.
The clothing industry’s desire for cheap labour having created an abundance of jobs but as the number of international clothes companies tapping into Cambodia’s workforce grows, so does anger at the low wages and tough conditions that come with such employment in the global garment industry. …
Overwork, malnutrition and poor ventilation are to blame for staff fainting in factories since 2010, according to Moeun Tola, program manager at the Community Legal Education Centre, which provides advocacy for workers. …
AFP
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_asiapacific/view/1259888/1/.html
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_asiapacific/view/1259888/1/.html
Cambodia’s employers, trade unions fail to reach agreement on pay rise
March 12th, 2013, Xinhuanet News, Business & Commercial Development, Garment Industry, Industry, Labor, News Source, Textiles, Trade
The third round of negotiation between Cambodia’s garment and footwear manufacturers and representatives of trade unions on minimum wage increase ended without result on Monday.
The talk between the employers represented by Nang Sothy, co- chair of the Government-Private Working Group on Industrial Relations, and Ken Loo, secretary general of Garment Manufacturers Association of Cambodia (GMAC), and 10 representatives of the trade unions, was mediated by Om Mean, secretary of state at the Ministry of Labor. …
Xinhuanet
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/business/2013-03/11/c_132225825.htm
Limited yarn supply troubles Cambodian silk industry
March 11th, 2013, Fibre2fashion, Business & Commercial Development, Economics, Garment Industry, Imports, Industry, International Relations, Production, Social Concerns, Textiles, Trade
The silk industry of Cambodia is in rapid decline due to limited domestic supply of silk yarn and high cost of imported raw materials.
According to the latest data released by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)-Cambodia, the Southeast Asian nation imports 395 tonnes of raw silk yarn from countries such as China and Vietnam, and only 5 percent of raw materials are produced in the country. …
A research report on Cambodian silk industry released by the FAO states, “Silkworm diseases, low quality silkworm varieties and rudimentary production techniques kept cocoon production low. Silk producers are unable to meet international standards because of traditional manual reeling techniques.”
Fibre2fashion Staff
http://www.fibre2fashion.com/news/textile-news/newsdetails.aspx?news_id=122102
Hana plugs into Cambodian market
March 8th, 2013, Bangkok Post, Business & Commercial Development, Construction, Foreign Investment, Garment Industry, Industry, Infrastructure, International Relations, Production, Textiles
Hana Microelectronics Plc is investing 1.5 billion baht to build a new factory in Lamphun and another in Koh Kong, the latter marking a plunge into the Cambodian market.
Chief executive Richard Han also hinted yesterday that the SET-listed electronic-parts maker could relocate some production from Thailand to Cambodia if it cannot cope with rising wages here over the next 3-5 years.
Wages in Cambodia are one-third those in Thailand but will certainly rise as well, he said.
“But the wages will grow faster in Thailand and China,” said Mr Han.
“Shoes and textiles are now the major industries in Cambodia. We are the pioneer in electronics.”
Some 120 million baht has been allocated for buying a 60-rai plot of land in the Koh Kong special economic zone, while 360 million is slated for the factory. …
The company achieved flat revenue last year, rising by 4% in US-dollar terms to $555 million and 6% in baht terms to 17.2 billion amid a weak global electronics industry. Net earnings edged up 3% to 1.66 billion baht on a continued combination of flood issues. …
The Bangkok Post Staff
http://www.bangkokpost.com/business/economics/339371/hana-plugs-into-cambodian-market
Cambodia factory monitoring “needs urgent reform”
February 28th, 2013, Just-Style, Garment Industry, Industry, Labor, News Source, Textiles
The long-running Better Factories Cambodia (BFC) monitoring programme is in urgent need of reform, according to a new report, which suggests the country’s reputation as a standard-bearer for apparel workers’ rights is “wearing thin”.
The report, “Monitoring in the Dark – an evaluation of the International Labour Organization’s (ILO) Better Factories Cambodia monitoring and reporting programme”, has been released by the Worker Rights Consortium and Stanford Law School. …
In particular, the report says that, during the 11 years of BFC’s operations in Cambodia, there have been declines in wage levels and basic job security, including widespread use of temporary contracts for workers. …
Richard Woodard
http://www.just-style.com/analysis/cambodia-factory-monitoring-needs-urgent-reform_id117121.aspx
Wide Gap Hampers Cambodian Wage Talks
February 26th, 2013, Radio Free Asia, Garment Industry, Industry, Labor, News Source, Textiles
A higher minimum salary for Cambodia’s garment and footwear worker is still not within sight after talks broke down Tuesday between unions representing the workers and their employers, officials said.
The garment and footwear workers unions proposed to nearly double the current minimum monthly wage of U.S. $61 to U.S. $120, but the Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia (GMAC) offered to increase it only to U.S. $72. …
Cambodia’s 300,000 textile workers often work long shifts for little pay in the garment factories, trade unions complain. The garment industry is Cambodia’s third-largest currency earner. …
Vann Vicha and Samean Yun
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/wages-02262013140215.html
Factory pay protest continues
February 18th, 2013, The Phnom Penh Post, Business & Commercial Development, Garment Industry, Industry, International Relations, Labor, Social Concerns, Textiles
Workers at the shuttered Yung Wah I and II factories in Kandal province will continue protesting today, despite the government already agreeing to pay them using company funds. Worker Soy Sokchea said yesterday that he and his colleagues would keep demanding benefits and seniority bonuses. …
Um Visal, labour dispute resolution officer at the Coalition of Cambodian Apparel Workers’ Democratic Union, said yesterday that the workers had demanded the government pay them using company money that had been lodged as a type of bond. …
Meanwhile, more than 500 workers at Hi Fashion garment factory in Phnom Penh’s Sen Sok district will also protest to demand wages tomorrow. …
Mom Kunthear
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013021861414/National/factory-pay-protest-continues.html
Minimum wage may rise for Cambodian garment workers
February 12th, 2013, Fibre2fashion, Business & Commercial Development, Exports, Garment Industry, Industry, Labor, Textiles
The Cambodia’s Ministry of Labour has scheduled a meeting on February 26 with representatives of various unions to discuss the new minimum wage for garment workers in the country.
However, the Ministry expects the various workers’ unions to agree on what the new wage should be before they attend the meeting. …
The Ministry of Labour is working on reaching a consensus to raise the minimum wage of clothing workers following a call given by Prime Minister Hun Sen to raise the salaries of garment workers in order to prevent them from moving to neighbouring countries to draw better wages. …
In 2012, Cambodia exported clothing and textiles worth US$ 4.61 billion, registering a rise of nine percent year-on-year.
Fibre2fashion Staff
http://www.fibre2fashion.com/news/apparel-news/newsdetails.aspx?news_id=120969
Investment Or Imperialism? Tracking China’s Big Ambitions In Cambodia
February 8th, 2013, Worldcrunch, Business & Commercial Development, Economics, Electricity, Energy, Extractive Industries, Foreign Investment, Garment Industry, Hydroelectricity, Industry, International Relations, Mining, News Source, Textiles, Trade, Water
A few years ago this scene would have played out in China. More specifically, it would have played out in a Chinese coastal region to which millions of rural folks had arrived looking for work. A huge hangar, piles of fabrics of all colors at both ends, and some 200 heads lowered over sewing machines set up one behind the other.
The atmosphere is not oppressive, just focused. But the workers here are too dark-skinned to be Chinese – though there are some: the managers of this clothes factory on the outskirts of the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh.
From his office next door, He Enjia directs operations at Sunkind Textile. He left China in 1996 to set up his first factory in Cambodia. At the time, he was a pioneer. He moved for one reason – to get around export quotas on Chinese fabrics.
Sixteen years later the sector has exploded. It generates over $4 billion of revenue a year, which makes it Cambodia’s biggest export by far. In a country of only 14 million inhabitants, the textile industry employs over 300,000 in the Phnom Penh region and plays a major role in the annual growth of 7% on average that the kingdom has been experiencing over the past decade.
Attracted by the legal framework, which is very favorable for investors, the Chinese have taken the lead. “Cambodia is the easiest Asian country to invest in,” says Daniel Zarba, Director General of the Franco-Cambodian Chamber of Commerce. What’s more, the cost of production is lower in Cambodia than it is in China. “Here a worker costs on average $150 a month compared to $600 in China. Even if you take into account the fact that Cambodians are less productive, it still means your labor is two times less expensive,” says He Enjia. …
The textile industry is part of a much wider phenomenon. In Cambodia, in the logging, mining, farming, construction, and energy sectors, the Chinese are filling their pockets. The six hydroelectric dams presently being built? All by Chinese companies. The mines in the north? Often run by Chinese groups. “I even saw Chinese soldiers guarding the entrance to a mine,” says a European man living in Phnom Penh. At the recently created Phnom Penh Stock Exchange, where only one – state-owned – company is listed, the Chinese presence is freely acknowledged. “In many sectors, Chinese investors are essential for us,” explains Charles Lu, deputy director of Phnom Penh Securities, adding that Chinese groups invested $9.1 billion in Cambodia between 1994 and 2012. …
GMAC members double
January 30th, 2013, The Phnom Penh Post, Business & Commercial Development, Garment Industry, Industry, International Relations, Labor, Social Concerns, Textiles
The number of companies registering to become members of the Garment Manufacturing Association in Cambodia (GMAC) doubled last year, with more investment in value-added products.
GMAC said the number of new members reached 120 last year, compared with 60 newcomers in 2011. …
“Labour-intensive industries in China would like to relocate to good candidate countries because of the drastic increase in wages in China compared with those in other countries, including Cambodia.”
From this month, every Thai worker will be entitled to a 300 baht ($10) daily minimum wage. Monthly wages in Vietnam have risen to as much as 2.4 million dong ($113).
The minimum wage for a Cambodian worker in a garment factory is $61 a month. …
Hor Kimsay
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013013061067/Business/gmac-members-double.html