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lose their jobs in Cambodia's garment industry this year, a labour
ministry report showed Monday. Between January and September, 77
factories were closed across the country resulting in the loss of 30
,617 jobs, according to the report obtained by AFP. Although 40 new
factories opened in same the period and created more employment,
more than 20 ,000 job losses remained, it showed. Another 53
factories also suspended operations during the period but about half
have reopened. "The closure of the factories is due to fewer purchase
orders," Oum Mean, secretary of state at the Ministry of Labour, told
AFP. "We can assume that this has been caused by the global financial
crisis because the consumption in big countries has declined and this
made some factories receive no purchase orders," he said. In the face
of shrinking demand from the US, the largest importer of
Cambodian-made garments, the government is seeking new markets for
textiles in Asia and Europe, Oum Mean added. Cambodia's garment
industry is the impoverished country's largest source of income,
providing 80 percent of its foreign exchange earnings and employing
an estimated 350 ,000 people last year. The International Monetary
Fund said last month that Cambodia's economy will contract 2.75
percent this year as the global economic crisis takes its toll.
