Cambodia ready to sustain export growth despite tariff reductions
Cambodia ready to sustain export growth despite tariff reductions
Kaing Monika, Deputy Secretary-General of the Textile, Apparel, Footwear and Travel Goods Association in Cambodia (TAFTAC), yesterday claimed that Cambodia is ready and resilient enough to maintain the growth of exports in the international market.
He said that the Royal Government and relevant stakeholders are actively working to ensure the Kingdom’s sustainability and competitiveness, particularly after Cambodia’s graduation from Least Developed Country (LDC) status in 2029.
Releasing a press statement of the Ministry of Labour and Vocational Training (MLVT), he said that Cambodia has a strategy in place to develop the garment, footwear, and travel goods sector from 2022 to 2027.
“The strategic measures include developing human resources to enhance labour productivity as well as improve working conditions, development of local raw material production, promoting investment in supporting industries, and diversifying markets,” said Monika.
He went on to add that Cambodia has also paid attention to social and environmental compliance, which is a key requirement in the international market.
Ky Sereyvath, an economics researcher at the Royal Academy of Cambodia, also said that Cambodia has managed to sustain growth in its exports of clothing, footwear, and travel products to the European Union, despite some tariff preferences being reduced.
“Maintaining growth in exports of clothing, footwear, and travel products is driven by many factors, and Cambodia’s competitive position in the international market and productivity of Cambodia is still high,” he said.
Sereyvath said that Cambodia has become a key recipient of high orders as several countries have faced political and economic crises due to domestic unrest.
“Cambodia has been able to maintain its export growth despite the Kingdom will no longer be eligible for the standard GSP and the Everything But Arms (EBA) tariff scheme of the EU. Of course, this has not affected Cambodia’s exports at all,” he said.
He stressed that, however, the RGC must be prepared to maintain its productivity and export growth by improving the skills of its citizens to be ready to accept new and large-scale investments in advance.
According to the report of Ministry of Commerce (MoC), Cambodia exported garments, textiles, footwear, and travel goods worth $13.92 billion in 2024, up 23 percent over the previous year.
The report said garment exports stood at $9.79 billion last year, a 24 percent increase from the previous year. It added that textiles worth $499 million were shipped to international markets, up 17 percent.
The report further said that $1.68 billion worth of footwear was exported, up 23 percent, while travel goods equivalent to 1.95 billion dollars were sold to international markets, up 19.6 percent.
