ILO-BFC Quarterly Meeting on Labour Compliance of Garment and Footwear Industries

In the afternoon of September 1, 2016, Ministry of Commerce hosted a Quarterly Meeting on Labour Compliance of Garment and Footwear Industries of ILO-Better Factories Cambodia (ILO-BFC). The meeting was chaired by H.E. PAN Sorasak, Minister of Commerce with participation from ILO-BFC, GMAC, relevant ministries and members from the garment and footwear industries.

In the meeting, Ms. Esther Germans, Manager of ILO-BFC reported on the progress made by Better Factory Cambodia in expanding the garment and footwear industries in Cambodia. She also highlighted a number threats and opportunities facing the industry in Cambodia especially with the dynamic shifts in the markets and demands. ILO-BFC is also working closely with Ministry of Labour and Vocational Training (MOLVT) to transfer the skills and knowledge in compliance monitoring so that MOLVT could become a credible monitoring body and in turn, provide confidence to the brands and buyers that the garment and footwear manufacturers strictly follows the international accepted standards.

Mr. Van Sou Ieng, President of GMAC proposed that the Government to continue to take charge in bringing in the buyers. He also proposed that the Government studies to see how various procedures could be removed to ease in the importation of raw materials by the manufacturers to Cambodia.

H.E. Minister appreciated all the reports and inputs provided by the participants. He encouraged ILO-BFC to continue to work to transfer the knowledge and skills to MOLVT so that we can have sustainability in the long run. For GMAC, he would take the proposals and discuss more internally within the relevant government agencies. Before the end of the meeting, the Minister commented there are many opportunities in Cambodia as Cambodia has many competitive advantages over other countries especially that Cambodia has been granted preferential treatments to export travel goods to the US. The Ministry of Commerce will lead a delegation which include member of US Embassy to Cambodia and GMAC to Hong Kong this month to attract more investors to invest in Cambodia.