GMAC seeks government help

10 September 2009
Everyday.com.kh
Translated from Khmer by Socheata

The Rasmei Kampuchea newspaper reported that, on 08 September, the Garment Manufacturer Association of Cambodia (GMAC) met with vice-PM Keat Chhon, the minister of Economy and Finence, to the ask the government to help resolve 3 issues: (1) unions holding too many strikes at various factories, (2) the fees for export administration, and (3) the better application of the garment factory plan by the International Labor Organization (ILO). Van Sou Ieng, GMAC chairman, told the meeting that, currently, the situation had changed significantly due the drop in foreign garment orders, and also the factories face stiff competition from other countries, therefore the garment factories demand for additional government intervention to resolve three major issues: (1) the lowering of the production cost by suspending the export administration fees, (2) the resolution for illegal strikes organized by unions at a number of factories which are taking place daily, and (3) the GMAC also asked the government to help think about the efficiency of the plan for better garment factories in Cambodia provided by ILO.

Cambodia’s Garment Exports Fall as Demand Drops in U.S., Europe [-Isn't that contrary to what Dr Hun Xen predicted?]

By Daniel Ten Kate and Carole Zimmer

“Just look at the factories ... They’re closing. The living standards get worse and worse” - Sary Muong, factory worker

March 18 (Bloomberg) -- Cambodia’s garment exports are declining as a global recession crimps demand in the U.S. and Europe, cutting into an industry that supports a 10th of the Southeast Asian country’s population.

In January, garment exports plunged 25 percent from a year earlier to $185 million, said Mean Sophea, who heads the Commerce Ministry’s Trade Preferences System Department. Over the past decade, they grew at an average pace of 28 percent per year, according to the World Bank.

“I’ve never seen garment exports drop this much,” Mean Sophea said by phone from Phnom Penh, the capital. “The government is trying to reduce expenses for exporters, but we have seen a lack of demand from the U.S. and Europe.”

The U.S. and Europe take more than 90 percent of clothes made in Cambodia. Southeast Asia’s second-smallest economy may shrink 0.5 percent in 2009, the International Monetary Fund said March 6, revising down its 4.8 percent growth projection made a month earlier.

The proportion of garment shipments to total exports is higher in Cambodia than any country except Bangladesh and Haiti, according to World Trade Organization data. Some 70 percent of the country’s clothes were shipped to the U.S., where it was the eighth-largest supplier in 2007, the World Bank has said.

Lost Jobs

About 30,000 Cambodian garment workers, or a 10th of the total, lost their jobs in the past year as factories closed, the World Bank said in a March 8 report. The industry accounted for 17 percent of Cambodia’s gross domestic product in 2007.

The garment industry took off 10 years ago after Cambodia signed a trade deal with the U.S. that linked market access with improved labor standards in its factories. Exports went from almost nothing in 1994 to $2.7 billion two years ago.

The money earned every month by those who sew and stitch jeans and T-shirts for retailers such as Gap Inc. and Stockholm-based Hennes & Mauritz AB supports as many as 1.5 million Cambodians, said Douglas Broderick, resident representative of the United Nations Development Fund in Phnom Penh.

“There’s a whole community around the garment sector, little vendors, landlords, food stalls,” he said. “All those people will get hit.”

Sary Muong, a Cambodian garment worker earning less than $2 per day, has struggled to provide her family basic goods like food and clothing. The 34-year-old single mother makes a monthly salary of $55 that supports her parents and 8-year-old daughter.

“Just look at the factories,” Sary Muong said from a one-room shack with no running water or toilet in Phnom Penh where she lives with her sister. “They’re closing. The living standards get worse and worse.”

Labor Standards

Cambodia’s garment industry has built a reputation for good labor standards over the past decade that the Commerce Ministry says contributed to its growth. In 2001, the government, garment factories, labor unions and the International Labor Organization, a UN agency, agreed to set up a monitoring agency called Better Factories Cambodia.

It files semi-annual reports on working conditions in factories that go to buyers like Nike Inc., Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Adidas AG. Still, the higher labor standards haven’t stopped retailers from demanding ever lower prices, said Roger Tan, a factory manager and secretary-general of the Garment Manufacturers’ Association of Cambodia.

“Every factory is cutting costs now whether they like it or not,” he said. “The whole world is in deep trouble. Nothing should surprise anyone now.”

The government, reliant on overseas aid to finance a quarter of the national budget, has said it will extend tax breaks for clothing manufacturers to help reduce costs. Even so, Cambodia remains “increasingly affected” by the global slowdown, the IMF said, adding that its 2009 growth forecast may be revised again.

The world economy will shrink this year in a slump that is the worst “in most of our lifetimes,” Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the IMF’s managing director, said March 10. The World Bank, which also expects a contraction, said two days earlier that global trade would decline by the most in 80 years.

To contact the reporter on this story: Daniel Ten Kate in Bangkok at dtenkate@bloomberg.net; Carole Zimmer in New York at czimmer2@bloomberg.net.

Garment orders plunge 40 percent

Employees leave a garment factory in Phnom Penh on Thursday. (Photo by: AFP)

Monday, 16 March 2009
Written by Chun Sophal
The Phnom Penh Post

PRODUCTION DECLINE

• 40pc decline in garment production orders for the first two months of 2009
• Drop by more than two thirds in January exports, from $250m to $70m, said Commerce Minister Cham Prasidh
• More than 50,000 laid off since the downturn began last year
• About 70 factories closed since crisis began

Industry says that falling overseas orders could lead to more factory closures and layoffs, but hope remains for second-quarter recovery.

GARMENT orders were down 40 percent in the first two months of 2009 compared to the same period last year, Van Sou Ieng said Sunday after re-election as president of the Garment Manufacturers Association of Cambodia.

The latest figures suggest more layoffs and factory closures could be on the way for the already battered sector even if they paint a more positive figure than government data. Last week Minister of Commerce Cham Prasidh said exports had declined from US$250 million in January 2007 to just $70 million in the same period in 2008.

About 70 factories have shut their doors since the economic crisis started to hit Cambodia last August, and more than 51,000 workers have lost their jobs or seen their contracts suspended, say industry officials.

"We have received only 60 percent as many orders as last year, and that figure may continue to decrease without urgent measures," said Van Sou Ieng.

"I will encourage buyers to increase orders of textiles from Cambodia because they have already recognised the reputation of our country for respecting labour standards," he added.

He said local factories were improving their quality standards and were capable of competing with producers in Bangladesh and Vietnam.

GMAC, which represents the majority of the country's factories, said it plans to meet with buyers from Hong Kong on March 26 to press for orders.

"We must help garment factories to increase quality so that they are able to compete with other countries. That means improving transportation and reducing bureaucracy," he said.

The GMAC president said he hopes the industry will recover this year.

"I think in the second quarter we will be able to maintain orders at the current level if we make factories more competitive," he said.

The sector has been hit hard by the global economic slowdown and is heavily dependent on the crisis-hit American and European markets.

Garment makers have had limited success diversifying into the Middle East, Japan and Eastern Europe. The Commerce Ministry said export sales were down $60 million in February compared with last year, with $337 million in sales in 2009.

The monthly payroll for January and February was down $1.1 million from last year.

"In the second quarter, we will ... maintain orders at the current level."

Commerce Minister Cham Prasidh said he is optimistic that tourism and agriculture will stay strong, but added construction investment had fallen 40 percent.

From 2004 to 2008, total investment was $1.96 billion, with $1.17 billion in foreign investment and $7.880 million in local investment.

Mean Sophea, director of the Trade Preferences System Department of the Ministry of Commerce, said Sunday that the government has been encouraging more investment in the garment sector.

Union strikes

But a Commerce Ministry spokesman said worker unions and GMAC could help stimulate the sector.

"I think that GMAC can help make buyers feel confident in buying garments from Cambodia," Mean Sophea said.

Van Sou Ieng called Sunday for the country's 1,000 unions to limit their activities while the sector faces problems.

"Some union activities are leading to fewer orders and are leading to thousands of job losses, so [unions] must be careful with their actions," said Vann Sou Ieng. "I would like to publicly announce to the world that no matter what obstacles we face, Cambodia will not die. I will try to look for new markets and new buyers."

Chea Mony, president of the Free Trade Union of Cambodia, rejected the GMAC accusation, saying that many of the factories closing down were simply avoiding taxes.

"This is just GMAC's accusation," he said. "GMAC cannot blame strikes - there have been no strikes in the first two months of 2009, but 70 factories closed."