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Garment exports to slow
26 October 2017
Cambodia’s garment and footwear exports will likely see a slower percentage of growth this year at around 5 percent, compared with 7 percent in 2016, a trend that industry insiders dismissed as not being indicative of an overall decline or linked to the current political situation.

Speaking yesterday at the annual Cambodia Textile Summit, Ken Loo, secretary-general of the Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia, said that slower growth in the garment and footwear sector was a normal market occurrence as the overall production base increases.

“As your base number gets bigger and bigger, in terms of percentage growth, you cannot expect to grow at the same rate forever,” he said. “So far, the trade [in the garment industry] has not been affected by the current situation yet.”

Despite Loo being unable to release export figures for the first nine months of this year, he did add that 25 new factories had opened in Cambodia this year while 53 had shuttered operations...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/g ... ports-slow

The garment industry will not exist here in 10 years time, with automation and robotics meaning more cost effectiveness is achieved by re-shoring factories back to the markets where their consumers are.

Typically a factory employing 5000 here is replaced by a fully automated factory employing 50 highly technical engineers in the West.

Cambodia should consider what this new army of unemployed should be doing with themselves.

Nobody's going to bother to automate a Cambodian factory. In Madagascar you can get a machinist for $95 a month. Cambodians are less productive and overly millitant, you get more out of a Lao or Vietnamese worker for your money. That's why the garment industry is going tits up

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Early data show decline in garment sector growth
13 March 2018
The labour minister said on Monday that Cambodia’s garment sector grew by 4 percent last year to reach $7.6 billion, which would mark a slowdown in the growth rate compared to previous years.

Ith Sam Heng made the remarks at the ministry’s annual meeting, noting that the $7.6 billion amount was up from $7.3 billion in 2016. According to previously reported government data, the sector grew by 7.2 percent in 2016, up from $6.8 billion the year before.

It’s the first official reporting of 2017 export data for the sector. Export data are traditionally released by the Customs Department at the Ministry of Economy and Finance, however government officials have reported that the department has not released data from the second half of 2017. Both academics and business insiders have said the lack of accurate data harms research and business in the Kingdom.
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/e ... tor-growth

unproductive work force with tendency to strike at the slightest provocation, my advice is, do not invest in any business activity that requires large amount of manpower in cambodia

Some of the factory workers may have strong unions on their side so they have good pay and work conditions, but that doesn't apply to all garment factories.I'm not saying this is a fact, but it would not be surprising that many of the factories that suffer the most from labor unrest in Cambodia are Chinese owned.

Workers fired after trying to unionise
13 March 2018
For Peng Phalla, a sewing machine repairman by trade, the beginning of the end was December 8 – the day he filed the paperwork to form a union.

Phalla had spent the past two years helping a factory in Kampong Cham province churn out baby clothes. Now he wanted to improve working conditions for himself and his colleagues. Instead, he said, factory managers “started observing all my activities in the factory”.

First, the factory accused him of sexually harassing workers, “but the workers supported me”, according to Phalla.

Then, he said, a factory administrator dropped by unannounced at the snack shop where his wife worked and asked her if she was aware of her husband’s activities.

A few days later, the commune police chief showed up at Phalla’s parents’ house and told them that their son would lose his job if he didn’t stop his union work.

On December 28, less than three weeks after submitting the paperwork to form a union, Phalla says he was called into the office and fired.

Phalla is not alone. He is one of at least four workers who have accused managers at Chinese-owned Sun Hsu Garment Co Ltd of using their influence inside and outside of the company to harass, coerce and prevent employees from forming a union.
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/w ... g-unionise

Why would factory managers think it would be easier to negotiate with a few hundred female workers having a monthly , rather than a head of a union negotiating on their behalf. ?

I think this topic ended in 2014 lol.

Duncan wrote: ↑Tue Mar 13, 2018 4:52 pm Why would factory managers think it would be easier to negotiate with a few hundred female workers having a monthly , rather than a head of a union negotiating on their behalf. ?

divide and conquer, basic strategy

bolueeleh wrote: ↑Tue Mar 13, 2018 6:49 pm

Duncan wrote: ↑Tue Mar 13, 2018 4:52 pm Why would factory managers think it would be easier to negotiate with a few hundred female workers having a monthly , rather than a head of a union negotiating on their behalf. ?

divide and conquer, basic strategy

Using that strategy you have chaos until you know how much is divided and how much and what you have conquered. Which is why KOW is such a mess.