Garment Institute to Open in 2017

KHMER TIMES
MOM KUNTHEAR

GMAC is opening a training institute to help local garment workers move into management positions. Supplied

Cambodia has struggled in recent years to keep a steady flow of garment factory orders coming into the Kingdom, with countries like Bangladesh and Vietnam siphoning off business through lower-paid but higher-skilled workers.

But the Cambodian Garment Training Institute (CGTI), slated to open early next year, is hoping to change that.

According to its creator, the Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia (GMAC), the institute will work to increase competitiveness within the garment industry by teaching fashion design, pattern creation and quality checking controls at an international-standard level.

“We need these skills and we want all Cambodians involved. Workers also have to change to bridge their skills. The training will be taught in English, but we will translate it into Khmer,” said Ly Tek Heng, the operations manager at GMAC.

Mr. Tek Heng said the institute’s purpose was to give local residents the skills and capacity to handle work from international buyers and prepare them to move beyond the lowest positions within factories.

“We have many supervisors and workers, but we do not have much middle management,” he said.

According to a monthly newsletter from GMAC, CGTI will be functional by September and will aim to serve workers at all levels within the garment industry in a variety of fields – from basic sewing classes to high level specialist and pattern making.

Van Sou Ieng, GMAC’s chairman, said he hoped “CGTI [would] help meet some of the human resources needs of garment and footwear factories and reduce our dependency on foreign labor for management positions and other specific skilled functions.”

GMAC’s newsletters added that most factory managers and executives are not Cambodian and often come from China, Taiwan, Singapore and South Korea because the skills needed for the positions are hard to find locally.

GMAC says the first batch of training courses will start in April 2017.

According to GMAC, the vast majority of Cambodian factories suffer from a low level of productivity, some as low as 35 percent against the best factories, which reach a productivity rate of 65 percent.

The International Labor Organization said falling productivity and rising infrastructure costs are putting Cambodia’s garment industry at a disadvantage as it tries to compete with rivals Vietnam, Bangladesh and Myanmar.

The news of the new institute comes only one day after a senior official at GMAC said that in the first eight months of this year, more than 70 factories had been shuttered, while only 20 new ones had opened.

This came as orders from buyers for footwear and clothing made in Cambodia dropped by almost 30 percent, forcing not only closures, but the slashing of hours for workers.

“I think the political situation has affected business, both businessmen and investors. When one country has instability in politics, it is difficult to make investments and there are concerns, especially from buyers,” Mr. Tek Heng said on Monday.

“The political issues, illegal demonstrations and competition from the other garment and footwear exporting countries such Vietnam, Bangladesh and Myanmar has deterred investors from investing in Cambodia and has made buyers reluctant to order products from Cambodia.”

GMAC is hoping their institute will help factories cut down on costs and increase productivity.

“With this new institute, we hope to reverse the decline in productivity by offering education that leads to better jobs,” said GMAC’s secretary-general Ken Loo.