TMCnet News
CAMBODIAN GARMENT INDUSTRY FINDING WAYS TO SURVIVE CRISISJan 09, 2009 (AsiaPulse via COMTEX) -- $all $cm $tex $jp PHNOM PENH, Jan 9 Asia Pulse - At an annual meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations' Federation of Textiles and Apparel (AFTEX) in Phnom Penh on Thursday, Cambodian Commerce Minister Cham Prasidh said the garment industry saw a two per cent decrease in exports in 2008 over 2007. "This is better than my own expectation. I thought that it would have been down five to seven per cent," said Van Sou Ieng, chairman of the Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia (GMAC). Previous local reports have attributed the decrease to withering demand from traditional client countries. Around 70 per cent of Cambodia's garment products were sold to the United States, four per cent to Canada and the rest mainly to European countries. Garment industry exports once accounted for over 70 per cent of Cambodia's total annual export volume. In 2007, clothing exports earned US$2.93 billion for Cambodia, according to official figures. The industry will face a six to nine month long crisis in 2009, due to lack of profitable orders, Van Sou Ieng said at the AFTEX meeting. Due to the global financial crisis, especially the U.S. worthy orders and the current orders could only sustain them until March, he said. "The crisis has propelled some buyers to give prices too low to be acceptable for the producers, so they have no choice but shut down their factories," he said. Over 20 of the 400-strong garment factories in Cambodia have closed, leading to the unemployment of 25,000 workers. Japan might become the alternative market for clothing makers, however, "currently, Japanese orders are few, because their quality demand is so high that we can hardly meet it". Fortunately, Japanese buyers had already listed some suggestions which could help Cambodia improve product quality. "Two directors, rather than one, supervise the operation of every 10 workers. This is the open sesame that they give us," he said. (XIC) |