Cambodia's Garment Export Reaches US$2.1 Billion In H1, Up 9 Per Cent

PHNOM PENH, July 23 (Bernama) -- Cambodia had exported garment and textile products worth US$2.1 billion in the first six months of 2012, up 9 percent from US$1.93 billion in the same period last year, a report from the Commerce Ministry showed on Monday.

According to China's Xinhua news agency, the United States and European countries are the main buyers, other clients include Canada, Japan, South Korea, China and some other Asian countries.

During the same period, the country had imported garment and textile raw materials in equivalent to US$1.5 billion, a 23 percent rise from US$1.22 billion in the same period last year, said the report.

Those materials had been mainly imported from China, China's Taiwan, Thailand, Japan and South Korea.

Garment industry is the country's largest income earner. The sector consists of more than 300 factories, employing some 335,400 workers - 91 percent of them are female, according to the Commerce Ministry.

Last year, the sector had exported products worth US$4. 24 billion, up 25 percent from a year earlier.

-- BERNAMA