Pressure Mounts on Garment Industry

[geovalin]

Khmer Times/May Kunmakara

Falling productivity and rising infrastructure costs are putting Cambodia’s garment industry at a disadvantage as it tries to compete with rivals Vietnam, Bangladesh and Myanmar, a leading union said yesterday. The Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia (GMAC) yesterday urged the government to launch a productivity campaign to improve the situation in one of the country’s biggest industries.

GMAC quoted the ILO’s bulletin between 2011 and 2014, which said labor productivity in the garment and footwear sector dropped by about 14 percent. It said labor productivity appears to have fallen as the growth in employment has outstripped the value the sector added to the economy. Ken Loo, GMAC’s secretary-general, was quoted as saying that the decline in productivity appears to have continued into 2016 and the organization has asked workers, unions and the government to focus more on improving productivity in the industry, as competition is increasing globally.

“Everyone has to do their part to keep our industry as healthy as it can be in the current global competitive environment. As employers, we are doing our part by investing in building skills among our workers,” he said. Mey Kalyan, a senior advisor to the Supreme National Economic Council (SNEC), has suggested the government and concerned stakeholders in the industry sit down together and work out how to deal with the issue.

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