Cambodia has 1,087 garment, shoe factories with 700,000 workers: minister

PHNOM PENH, April 19 (Xinhua) -- Cambodian Labor Minister Ith Samheng said on Sunday that the country's garment and footwear industries, the kingdom's largest foreign currency earner, are comprised of 1,087 factories with 700,000 direct jobs.
"These factories have spent more than 1 billion U.S. dollars on wages per year," he said during a meeting with about 3,000 workers and civil servant representatives.
"In addition, the garment and footwear industries generate about 2 million indirect jobs, such as house rentals, food sales and transportation," Samheng said.
According to the Ministry of Commerce, the Southeast Asian nation exported garment and footwear products worth nearly 6.2 billion U.S. dollars last year, accounting for 80.5 percent of the country's total export.
On the overseas labor, the minister said around 720,000 Cambodian laborers are working abroad and have sent home more than 1 billion U.S. dollars per year.
Cambodian migrant laborers have been working in five countries: Thailand, Malaysia, South Korea, Japan and Singapore. Thailand is the largest market for Cambodian laborers, following by Malaysia and South Korea.
Copyright2015 Xinhua News Agency

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