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Wednesday, January 24, 2007

Cambodian leader slams ILO for 'untruthful' reports about garment factories

The Associated Press
Wednesday, January 24, 2007

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia

Prime Minister Hun Sen accused the U.N. labor agency Wednesday of false reporting about working conditions in Cambodia's garment factories.

Speaking at a meeting with investors, the prime minister echoed complaints from a representative of clothing industry employers protesting factory monitoring work by the Geneva-based International Labor Organization.

Damaging reports by the ILO about "any factories could create risk not just for factory owners but for the workers," Hun Sen said during a forum with businessmen Wednesday.

Since 2001, the ILO has been running a project to monitor working conditions in Cambodian garment factories.

Hun Sen called on the U.N. labor agency to correct any "untruthful reports" it has produced about industry, which is Cambodia's leading foreign exchange earner. He did not refer to any specific ILO findings but was addressing complaints raised by an unidentified investor at the meeting.

The prime miniser went so far as to suggest that some ILO staffers may be using blackmail tactics in their work.

"ILO is a good organization, but there could also be some bad people working for it," Hun Sen said. "Sometimes, some of its staffers may even try to extort money from factory owners, like, 'If you give me money, I will write a good report about you.'"

The ILO office in Cambodia did not return phone calls seeking comment.

The garment industry employs 320,000 workers in 286 factories. Garment exports have grown to more than US$2.2 billion (€1.7 billion) annually in recent years, largely because of restrictions imposed by the United States and the European Union on garment imports from China.

Investors have expressed concern about the future of Cambodia's garment industry following the accession of Vietnam, another low-cost and labor-intensive producer, into the World Trade Organization.

Exports from Vietnam to the world markets "will intensify," Hun Sen said, asking "what kind of impact will Cambodia get from such competition?"

To help the industry survive, the government has decided to offer investors tax breaks totaling 116 billion riel (US$28.6 million; €22 million) this year and 121 billion riel (US$30 million; €23 million) in 2008, Keat Chhon, Cambodia's finance minister, said at the meeting Wednesday.

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