Cambodian prime minister Hun Sen has urged garment workers in the country to improve their productivity and see that factories do not close shop and move to countries such as Laos, Bangladesh and Myanmar, all of which have lower minimum wages. He was speaking at a graduation ceremony at the National Technical Training Institute where he also pointed out relatively rapid gains in the minimum wage for Cambodia’s garment workers which were recently set at $153 a month for the coming year.

Naming the countries that were taking away the factories from Cambodia are Myanmar that has a minimum wage of $60 to $80; Laos, that has a minimum wage of $100 and Bangladesh that also has a minimum wage of $100, he said. Lead ASEAN analyst for the Economist Intelligence Unit, Miguel Chanco agreed that countries such as Myanmar and Bangladesh were indeed presenting a real threat to Cambodia’s garment industry, primarily because in Cambodia it is very expensive to hire workers. The steep increases seen in the minimum wage of Cambodia’s garment industry since 2013 means that it now costs twice as much to hire someone in Cambodia when compared with labour costs in Myanmar and Bangladesh, he remarked in an email.

Deputy Secretary-general of Garment Manufacturers Association in Kaing Manika said it was impossible to deny the threat posed by Myanmar and Bangladesh. Meanwhile, Pav Sina, president of the Collective Union of Movement of Workers said that the wage issue was not to blame for closing down of the factories. Here he pointed out to a rather long-standing complaint about bribery, infrastructure woes and non-competitive electricity prices.