Impacts of Global Crisis in Cambodia

By Chheang Vannarith

 

 

On July 14, 2009, the Cambodia-Japan Center held a “Public Forum on Impact of Global

Economic Downturn and Need for Policy Responses.” The forum was co-organized by the NGO Forum in Cambodia, Cambodian Economic Association (CEA), Caritas Cambodia, Oxfam America, Oxfam Great Britain, Action Aid, Star Kampuchea, Cooperation Committee for Cambodia (CCC), Cambodian Labour Confederation (CLC), and Worker’s Information Center (WIC).
 

The forum provided background information on the impacts of the global economic crisis on Cambodia’s garment industry and agriculture sectors.  
 

Since the end of 2008, more than 70 garment factories have been closed. In addition, more than 60,000 workers lost their job. This has adversely impacted socio-economic development and poverty reduction in Cambodia.

 

Regarding the agricultural sector, production has expanded, however, the prices of agricultural products have decreased. Thus, drastically lowering farmer’s personal income, especially since they have invested so much in fertilizers and high cost production inputs such as oil.   

 

In response rising unemployment and lowering personal income, the government heavily invested in the agricultural sector through rural infrastructure development, especially irrigation systems. In addition, the government allocated special funds to train laid-off factory workers. The government wants to try to find a way for the factory workers to gain new skills in order to seek out future jobs elsewhere.

 

Social safety nets such as these have been created to assist those who have been deeply impacted by the crisis.