The Garment Industry in Cambodia: Its Role in Poverty Reduction through Export-Oriented Development
Abstract
Cambodia's export-oriented garment industry has contributed greatly to poverty reduction in the country through employment of the poor. This paper provides a statistical verification of this contribution based on firm-level data from 164 sampled companies collected in 2003. Its main conclusions confirm the substantial impact that employment in the garment industry has had on poverty reduction in Cambodia. Firstly, entry-level workers receive wages far above the poverty line. Secondly, females make up the predominant share of the main category jobs in the industry. Thirdly, barriers to employment and to promotions up to certain job categories are not high in terms of education and experience. Another important finding is that a typical sample firm exhibited high profitability, although there was wide variation in profitability among firms. This average of high profitability could be a good predictor of Cambodia's viability in the intensified competition since the phase out of the Multi-Fiber Arrangement (MFA) at the beginning of 2005. A point of note is that Cambodia's pattern of industrial development led by a labor-intensive industry is similar to that of neighboring countries in East Asia which earlier went through the initial stage of industrial development, except that Cambodia has lacked a strong government industrial promotion policy which characterized the earlier group.Download Info
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Paper provided by Institute of Developing Economies, Japan External Trade Organization(JETRO) in its series IDE Discussion Papers with number 62.Length:
Date of creation: Jun 2006
Date of revision:
Publication status: Published in IDE Discussion Paper. No. 62. 2006.6
Handle: RePEc:jet:dpaper:dpaper62
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Related research
Keywords: Cambodia; Export-oriented industrialization; Garments; Poverty reduction; Apparel industry; Exports;Find related papers by JEL classification:
- J30 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - General
- J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
- L67 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Manufacturing - - - Other Consumer Nondurables
- O53 - Economic Development, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economywide Country Studies - - - Asia including Middle East
This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:
- NEP-ALL-2006-11-18 (All new papers)
- NEP-DEV-2006-11-18 (Development)
- NEP-SEA-2006-11-18 (South East Asia)
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Citations
Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.Cited by:
- Cuyvers L. & Plasmans J. & Soeng R. & Van den Bulcke D., 2008. "Productivity Spillovers from Foreign Direct Investment in the Cambodian Manufacturing Sector: Evidence from Establishment-Level Data," Working Papers 2008004, University of Antwerp, Faculty of Applied Economics.
- Cuyvers, Ludo & Soeng, Reth & Plasmans, Joseph & Van Den Bulcke, Daniel, 2011. "Determinants of foreign direct investment in Cambodia," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 22(3), pages 222-234, June.
- Cornelia Staritz, 2011. "Making the Cut? Low-Income Countries and the Global Clothing Value Chain in a Post-Quota and Post-Crisis World," World Bank Publications, The World Bank, number 2547.
- Yamagata, Tatsufumi, 2007. "Prospects for Development of the Garment Industry in Developing Countries: What Has Happened Since the MFA Phase-Out?," IDE Discussion Papers 101, Institute of Developing Economies, Japan External Trade Organization(JETRO).
- Cuyvers L. & Plasmans J. & Soeng R. & Van den Bulcke D., 2008. "Determinants of Foreign Direct Investment in Cambodia: Country-Specific Factor Differentials," Working Papers 2008003, University of Antwerp, Faculty of Applied Economics.
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