Cambodia’s garment and footwear exports recorded a growth rate of nearly 6.7 per cent when compared with the year before. Nearly 80 new garment and footwear investment projects were approved in 2014. These investments represented 28 per cent of the total newly approved investment in fixed asset value in 2014. However there was a slight drop in investment during the first half of 2015, when compared with the same period in 2014.

Exports have been growing for the past 15 to 20 years in Cambodia continuously. And last year was no exception. The country’s garment exports rose to 5.7 billion dollars in 2015, up from US 5.34 billion dollars in 2014; while footwear exports generated 538 million dollars in receipts, up from 441.4 million dollars the year before. Textile exports contributed a marginal 48 million dollars.

The European Union is the biggest buyer of Cambodian exports, accounting for 2.5 billion dollars of the total. The US imported 2.48 billion dollars worth of garments from Cambodia in 2015.

The garment and footwear industry in Cambodia is expected to continue to grow in 2016. Growth in employment, exports and factory openings are all helping to dispel concerns that rising minimum wages would cause the sector to falter.