World Bank: Cambodia should move away from garments to electronics

The World Bank says Cambodia should diversify away from garment exports by further promoting shipments of electronic and vehicle parts and accessories to Japan. In its biannual update for Cambodia released Friday, the bank said Cambodia’s garment, footwear and travel goods exports grew only 7.5 percent in the three months to March, down from 17.7 percent a year earlier.

In 2019, growth in exports of garment, footwear and travel goods slowed to 13.6 percent, down from 17.7 percent a year earlier. Exports of these items to the EU including Britain fell 0.5 percent — the first decline since the global financial crisis in 2008-09. But the contraction was offset by rising exports to the United States.

After the American and European markets, the bank said Cambodia’s next two largest export markets were Japan $1.05 billion and Britain ($945 million in 2019. While the two markets each captured about US$800 million in garment exports, “the Japanese market seems very promising for Cambodia’s exports of electronic and vehicle parts and accessories,” the bank said.

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