No Cause for Concern – Experts not worried about decrease in fixed-asset investment
August 6th, 2012, Economics Today, Business & Commercial Development, Domestic Investment, Economics, Foreign Investment, Garment Industry, Imports, Textiles, Tourism, Trade
At first glance, the numbers indicate Cambodia’s investment climate has grown a little colder. Conditions appear to be worse than they were a year ago due to a big drop in total fixed assets for approved investment projects.
However, economists say the Cambodia outlook is actually pretty rosy thanks to an overall increase in the number of investment projects this year. Last year’s number was misleading, they say, thanks to one very large project that skewed the data.
The amount of total fixed assets of the projects approved in the first six months of this year fell to US $692 million from US $2.9 billion in the same time period in 2011, according to the data from the Council for the Development of Cambodia (CDC). …
According to the CDC, there were 60 projects approved in the industrial sector in the first half of this year, 15 more than over the same period in 2011, largely due to garment and textile investment. Four tourism projects were approved from January through June. …
Hor Kimsay, P. 15
http:///www.etmcambodia.com
New spin on an old traditionArtisan Designers (AND)
August 6th, 2012, The Phnom Penh Post, Business & Commercial Development, Domestic Investment, Garment Industry, Industry, News Source, Production, Textiles, Tourism, Trade
Putting a new spin on a traditional art form isn’t a simple thing to achieve, but for niche fashion enterprise Artisan Designers (AND) an ambitious new branding campaign is seeing Cambodian handicrafts pushed in a new direction.
Opening eight months ago on the tourist-friendly street 240, AND is the newest arm of Whatthan Artisans Cambodia, a fair-trade handicraft manufacturer and store based at the Wat Than pagoda in Phnom Penh.
The enterprise, which does not list itself as an NGO, employs approximately 40 workers in its on-site workshop, most of whom have a disability, as well as contracting traditional ikat weavers in Takeo province. …
For the AND brand, Suphearac enlisted British design and marketing adviser Alan Flux, who favours recycled materials like rice bags, cigarette lighters and Anchor bottle tops – bought by the kilo from local rubbish collectors – to create bags, purses and jewellery that would appeal to overseas visitors. …
Rosa Ellen, P. 8
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012080657820/Business/new-spin-on-an-old-tradition.html
Cambodia’s garment export reaches 2.1 bln USD in H1, up 9 pct
July 23rd, 2012, Xinhua News, Economics, Garment Industry, Industry, Textiles
Cambodia had exported garment and textile products in equivalent to 2.1 billion U.S. dollars in the first six months of 2012, up 9 percent from 1.93 billion U.S. dollars in the same period last year, a report from the Commerce Ministry showed on Monday. …
Xinhua
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/business/2012-07/23/c_131732434.htm
Report Shows Rise in Garment Labor Disputes
June 21st, 2012, The Cambodia Daily, Garment Industry, Industry, Labor, Textiles
Increasing discrimination by factories against unions and continued poor wages in Cambodia’s garment sector have resulted in a rise in the number of worker protests, according to a report released yesterday by the International Labor Organization (ILO).
According to its periodic synthesis report on working conditions in Cambodia’s garment sector, 36,053 workers participated in 27 strikes from November to April, twice as many as during the same period the year before. “Common reasons for the strikes were calls for increased wages and benefits and allegations of union discrimination,” the report states.
The report added that the expiration of a memorandum of understanding between the Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia (GMAC) and unions in September regulating strike action had contributed to the rise in protests.”The sector thus lacks the moderating influence of the MOU which, among other provisions, called for binding arbitration in cases of rights and no strikes prior to arbitration.” The report, which was conducted by ILO’s Better Factories Cambodia program, comes after a series of recent factory protests, including Tuesday’s protest at M&V Textile factory in Kompong Chhnang province, where 4,000 workers switched off the factory lights and held a strike demanding a raise.
Last month, more than 4,000 workers of SL Garment Processing (Cambodia) Co. Ltd., in Phnom Penh engaged in a violent protest, throwing rocks at the factory windows, before the company resolved to meet their demands for a pay raise clays later.
Philip Heijmans and Hul Reaksmey, P. 23
http://www.camnet.com.kh/cambodia.daily/ (Note: Infrequently Updated.)
Industry Sector
June 20th, 2012, Economics Today, Business & Commercial Development, Economics, Garment Industry, Industry, International Relations, Textiles
The real growth rate of the industry sector has been revised downwardly by half a percentage point against the previous estimate to 8.8 percent year-on-year in 2012. A scaling down of the growth estimate of the textile and garment sub sector, as a result of persistently weaker demand in the European and US markets, accounts for this lower growth rate. For a similar reason, our preliminary projection shows that the industry sector is likely to see another single digit growth rate of 9.5 percent year-on-year in 2013.
The export value of Cambodian textile and garment products during the first four months of 2012 was recorded at US$1.3 billion, an annualized increase of 11 percent. This growth pace was much slower than the 44 percent recorded over the same period last year as a result of weakening demand in Cambodia’s major export markets, Europe and the United States.
Based on these figures, the total export value of Cambodian textile and garment products is estimated to increase at an annualized rate of about 10 percent-slightly lower than our January expectation-to reach US$4.7 billion in 2012. …
Economics Today, P. 17
http://www.etmcambodia.com/
Cambodia: Economic Performance and Reform Update
May 28th, 2012, The Southeast Asia Weekly, Agriculture & Agri-business, Agro-Industry, Business & Commercial Development, Construction, Disasters & Disaster Management, Domestic Investment, Economics, Exports, Farming, Foreign Investment, Imports, Industry, International Relations, Labor, Production, Rice, Textiles
The Cambodian economy has continued its high growth path as real GDP expanded by 6.9 percent in 2011 and is expected to grow by 6.6 percent in 2012, report from world bank said this week. Cambodia has been one of the fastest growing countries in the world over the past ten years, experiencing average annual growth of over 8 percent since 2000.
The economy’s performance in 2011 was strong despite destructive floods hitting the agricultural sector during the last quarter. Growth came in higher than projected as a result of a recovery in the damaged agricultural sector (which grew by 3.3 percent in 2011 compared with an earlier forecast of 1.5 percent) and the robust expansion of exports, private investment, and consumption.
The risks of an impact of an economic slowdown in the US and EU, the two largest destinations of Cambodia’s key garment and textile exports, have not so far materialized: merchandise exports in 2011 jumped by 36 percent, with exports of garments and textiles up 32 percent and reaching US$4 billion.
Garment exports appear to have benefitted from a shift of labor intensive industries from China to lower wage cost countries like Cambodia. Cambodia experienced an 18 percent increase in the number of garment factories in 2011.
Milled rice exports expanded rapidly in 2011, recording annual of growth of 250 percent and reaching 180,000 tons last year. Despite the floods, rice production is anticipated to increase on the back of increased yields in both wet and dry season production and increased planted-areas. …
The new rankings also show that Cambodia is among the fastest reformers in the in the world…
The Southeast Asia Weekly, P. 8
http://thesoutheastasiaweekly.com/
(Note: Infrequently Updated.)
Silk producers look to sew up EU market ties
May 25th, 2012, The Phnom Penh Post, Exports, Imports, International Relations, Production, Textiles
Cambodia’s silk producers say they must cut costs in order to continue reaching troubled European markets, the primary target for the Kingdom’s sericulture products.
Insiders said Cambodian companies must start producing their own silk for the industry to survive.
Silk craftspeople import some 400 tonnes of silk per year from China then export finished products. …
Rann Reuy, P. 7
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012052556377/Business/silk-producers-look-to-sew-up-eu-market-ties.html
Pakistan garment sector picks Cambodia for relocation
April 29th, 2012, The Southeast Asia Weekly, Foreign Investment, Garment Industry, Industry, Textiles
The value-added textile sector, as the garment sector is called in Pakistan, has chosen Cambodia as an alternative destination for relocating their manufacturing units, owing to continued electricity and gas supply problems in the country. The power and gas shortage is affecting productivity in Pakistan’s apparel sector, which in turn, is affecting the sector’s exports. …
The Southeast Asia Weekly, P. 2
http://thesoutheastasiaweekly.com
Sihanoukville port revenues up 22% on economic growth
April 6th, 2012, The Phnom Penh Post, Agriculture & Agri-business, Business & Commercial Development, Economics, Exports, Foreign Investment, Garment Industry, Imports, Production, Rice, Textiles, Timber/Wood, Tourism
Revenues earned by the Sihanouk Autonomous Port for the first quarter of this year jumped 22 per cent year-on-year to US$8.3 million, according to figures released yesterday by SAP.
Exports of the Kingdom’s rice, garments and timber, coupled with imports of textiles, electronics and construction materials, had driven the increase, SAP general director Lou Kim Chhun said.
Sieam Bunthy, P. 8
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012040655455/Business/sihankouville-port-revenues-up-22-on-economic-growth.html
Police deny baton beatdown
March 29th, 2012, The Phnom Penh Post, Exports, Garment Industry, Industry, Labor, Textiles
The Phnom Penh municipal police chief yesterday denied claims his officers had beaten three female garment factory workers with batons and shields during a protest in which a 21-year-old’s nose was allegedly broken on Tuesday.
Police chief Touch Naruth called the Post yesterday claiming no weapons had been used to prevent about 900 employees of Win Shing-tex Cambodia garment factory from marching to the Ministry of Labour after 10 days of striking. …
Tep Nimol
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012032955319/National-news/police-deny-baton-beatdown.html
Imports Fill the Gap as Domestic Silk Production Dwindles
March 22nd, 2012, The Cambodia Daily, Industry, Production, Textiles
Cambodia is importing hundreds of tons of silk from China and Vietnam to compensate for a fast-declining domestic industry, which is suffering due to producers opting to grow other crops instead or raising silk worms, according to silk producers.
Men Sinoeun, director of the Artisans’ Association of Cambodia, which represents silk product makers across the country, said that Cambodia imports 300 to 350 tons of silk each year from China and Vietnam to supply local makers of items such as bags, krama scarves and other apparel.
While demand abroad and domestically is strong for Cambodian silk, Cambodia only produced between 4 and 5 tons of silk in 2011.
That amount is expected to drop even further to between 1 and 2 tons this year, Mr. Sinoeun said, adding that many silk producers are now choosing to grow cassava over raising silk worms. …
Thor Sina and Simon Lewis, P. 19
http://www.camnet.com.kh/cambodia.daily/ (Note: Infrequently Updated.)
Governor Drew Gun, Not Blood, Prosecutor Says
March 17th, 2012, The Cambodia Daily, Garment Industry, Labor, Textiles
The court prosecutor investigating last month’s shooting of three female factory workers at a special economic zone (SEZ) denied a newspaper report claiming the chief suspect, former Bavet City Governor Chhouk Bundith, had confessed to shooting the women.
Svay Rieng Provincial Court prosecutor Hing Bunchea said the report was erroneous, and claimed that Mr. Bundith, whom he questioned about the shooting Thursday, had only admitted to being armed with a pistol at the SEZ protest. Mr. Bundith could not remember if he opened fire or not, the prosecutor added. …
Bun Chenda, 21, who was shot at the SEZ protest and who has accused Mr. Bundith in a court complaint of being the gunman, said she did not believe his testimony.
“If he did not shoot, how did his bullets come to hit the workers?” Ms. Chenda asked. …
Khy Sovuthy, P.1
http://www.camnet.com.kh/cambodia.daily/ (Note: Infrequently Updated.)
Cambodia expects 7 pct GDP growth in 2012
March 12th, 2012, Xinhua News, Agriculture & Agri-business, Economics, Foreign Investment, Garment Industry, Infrastructure, Real Estate, Textiles, Tourism, Trade
Cambodia’s Finance Minister Keat Chhon said Monday that the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth is expected at 7 % this year. The forecast is higher than that of the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank — all forecast at 6.5 % this year.
Cambodia’s forecast was based on the increases in garments exports, tourist arrivals, and agriculture as well as a gradually recovered real estate sector, the minister told reporters after a meeting at the Ministry of Commerce. …
…he said that Cambodia is optimistic to attract more foreign investments in coming years thanks to the country’s preferential laws, improving infrastructures, and better trade facilitations, and preferential conditions in Asian countries for investors.
Cambodia’s GDP in 2011 was 7 %, or 13 billion U.S. dollars, according to the government report.
Xinhua
http://en.ce.cn/World/Asia-Pacific/201203/12/t20120312_23150134.shtml
Leave Minimum Wage Be, Manufacturers Say
March 11th, 2012, The Cambodia Daily, Garment Industry, Labor, Social Concerns, Textiles
The Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia (GMAC) has said that there should be no discussions on raising the minimum wage until 2014, in response to a request from three garment industry unions for talks on a living wage for workers.
The response, sent on Wednesday to the unions by GMAC Secretary-General Ken Loo, states that there would be several consequences of a minimum wage increase, one of those being that all workers in the industry would expect the same raise when it “should only impact those at the floor level.” …
The March 1 letter from the unions to Mr. Loo – signed by the presidents of the Coalition of Cambodian Apparel Workers’ Democratic Union (CCAWDU), National Independent Federation Textile Union of Cambodia and Cambodian Alliance of Trade Unions – called for an increase in the $66 minimum wage following stipulations in the Labor Law, CCAWDU President Ath Thorn said. …
Lauren Crothers, P. 11
http://www.camnet.com.kh/cambodia.daily/ (Note: Infrequently Updated.)
More than 40 faint as firm denies exit
March 7th, 2012, The Phnom Penh Post, Garment Industry, Industry, Labor, Social Concerns, Textiles
More than 40 workers had fainted at a garment factory yesterday after officials prevented them leaving the building when four of their co-workers collapsed, a labour department official said.
The mass fainting occurred at the Nanguo Garment Co Ltd factory in Preah Sihanouk province’s Prey Nub district, where more than 200 workers fainted less than a month ago. Yov Khemara, provincial director of the Ministry of Labour, said initial investigations suggested 45 women and one man had fainted because of a lack of oxygen.
“After the previous fainting, the factory has not really improved its ventilation,” Yov Khemara said. “There is not enough air to breathe. So it caused the heat to increase. Their fear also contributed to the fainting.”
About four female workers had fainted in the morning, causing their bodies to convulse and sending their co-workers, who feared the souls of ghosts had entered their bodies, into a frenzy, Yov Khemara said. …
Phak Seangly with additional reporting by Shane Worrell, P. 3
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012030754901/National-news/more-than-40-faint-as-firm-denies-exit.html
Whereabouts of Bavet governor still a mystery
March 5th, 2012, The Phnom Penh Post, Exports, Foreign Investment, Garment Industry, Labor, Social Concerns, Textiles
Government and police officials were at a loss yesterday to pinpoint the whereabouts of the Bavet town governor, who has been identified as a suspect in the shooting of three women at a protest two weeks ago.
An arrest warrant had still not been issued for Chhouk Bandith yesterday, who was identified as a suspect in the shootings outside the Kaoway Sports Ltd factory in Svay Rieng province by Interior Minister Sar Kheng on Thursday, officials said.
Svay Rieng chief prosecutor Hing Bun Chea said yesterday he had received the results of a police investigation but still had not finished checking it.“Chhouk Bandith has not been arrested yet because his case is still in the prosecutor’s hands and is still being checked.”
The shootings in Bavet town’s Manhattan Special Economic Zone put three people in hospital including 21-year-old Buot Chinda, who was shot through the chest and is recovering in Phnom Penh. Buot Chinda said last week that she had been visited by Bavet town police officials offering her US$500 on behalf of deputy prime minister Men Sam An, who also handed her a document to thumbprint, agreeing not to file a criminal complaint. …
May Tittihara, P. 3
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012030554855/National-news/whereabouts-of-bavet-governor-still-a-mystery.html
Garment factories: Minimum wage raise scrutinised
March 5th, 2012, The Phnom Penh Post, Garment Industry, Industry, Labor, Social Concerns, Textiles
The presidents of three unions have appealed to the Garment Manufacturing Association of Cambodia to improve the “miserable” living conditions of its workers by providing higher wages and better benefits, a letter received by the Post yesterday shows.
The letter is dated March 2 and signed by Ath Thorn, president of the Coalition of Cambodian Apparel Workers Democratic Union; Morm Nhim, president of the Cambodian National Confederation; and Yang Sophoun, president of the Cambodia Association of Trade Unions. …
“The minimum wage is $61 [per month] and at this present time, the actual [living] expenses is around $100, so they really need from $40 to $50 [more],” the letter states, including a $15 monthly transportation allowance. …
Mom Kunthear, P.6
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012030554847/National-news/garment-factories-minimum-wage-raise-scrutinised.html
Mystery Surrounds SEZ Triple Shooting Case
March 5th, 2012, The Cambodia Daily, Social Concerns, Textiles
Confusion continued to swirl around the fate of Bavet city Governor Chhuk Bundith yesterday after the Interior Ministry last week identified him as the sole suspect in the Feb. 20 triple shooting of protesters at a special economic zone (SEZ).
While human rights groups claimed yesterday that the governor had been arrested by police on Friday, but was quickly released, provincial and Interior Ministry officials denied that the governor had been detained or questioned. “It is not true what the NGO claims that he was arrested in Romeas Hek district; there was no arrest,” said Chum Rei, the district’s police chief. …
Representatives at local rights group Licadho and the Community Legal Education Center said a Svay Rieng provincial police source had informed them that Mr. Bundith had been arrested on Friday afternoon near the Vietnamese border while attempting to leave the country. …
Khuon Narim, P.1
http://www.camnet.com.kh/cambodia.daily/ (Note: Infrequently Updated.)
Bavet Governor’s Arrest Reported in Svay Rieng
March 3rd, 2012, The Cambodia Daily, Garment Industry, Labor, Social Concerns, Textiles
Bavet City Governor Chhuk Bundith was arrested on Friday afternoon for his alleged role in the triple shooting in Svay Rieng province, local rights group Licadho said late Friday night.
“[Chhuk Bandith]” was arrested this afternoon at 4:30 p.m., and is now being detained in provincial police headquarters,” said Am Sam Ath, Licadho’s technical supervisor adding that Licadho rights workers based in Svay Rieng had confirmed his arrest.
However, senior government officials were unable to confirm the arrest or declined to comment. …
http://www.camnet.com.kh/cambodia.daily/ (Note: Infrequently Updated.)
Photo Said to Show SEZ Shooter With Police
March 3rd, 2012, The Cambodia Daily, Business & Commercial Development, Exports, Foreign Investment, Labor, Social Concerns, Textiles
A week and a half after a uniformed man opened fire on three female protesters at a special economic zone in Svay Rieng province, a photograph surfaced in a local newspaper on Friday showing the alleged gunman brandishing a pistol and surrounded by police and military police.
The image, which appeared in Koh Santepheap Daily Newspaper, is low resolution, but shows a man in a beige-colored shirt wielding a handgun overhead as he walks through a field at what is said to be the edge of the Manhattan Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in Bavet City.
Speaking on the condition of anonymity on Friday for fear of retibution, the photographer who took the image recounted the events surrounding the triple shooting. “The gunman first left his car and walked into the SEZ toward a crowd of protesters. I first heard the shots, several. I turned my eyes to the crowded workers. What I saw was a man, carrying a handgun, accompanied by police, guards and military soldiers. They quickly moved to the south of the SEZ, heading toward a rice paddy canal. The shooter and his accomplices crossed this canal,” the photographer said. …
Kuch Naren, P.1
http://www.camnet.com.kh/cambodia.daily/ (Note: Infrequently Updated.)