Cambodia’s trade minister Pan Sorasak has recently urged Adidas and H&M to start ordering the country’s fashion products. The call was made during a recent meeting between the Minister and Adidas representatives headed by Matthew Armstrong and Christer Horn af Aminne, the development manager responsible for Cambodia and Vietnam at H&M.
According to Cambodian media sources, 121 of the 706 garment factories in Phnom Penh were temporarily halted due to a shortage of raw materials and production setbacks faced in the midst of the COVID-19 crisis during a press conference at the council of ministers’ office, municipal labor department director Choun Vuthy said.
The suspended factories left lakhs of workers unemployed and affected millions of families. The government has provided $40 in wage support for unemployed workers.
Meanwhile, Better Factories Cambodia (BFC) has launched a hotline to provide information to workers in the garment, footwear, travel goods and bag industries regarding measures that help prevent the spread of COVID-19. The hotline, part of the ‘COVID-19: Worker Safety’ program, uses interactive voice response (IVR) technology.
The service’s content is drawn from guidance and recommendations from the World Health Organization and the Ministry of Health and will be revised periodically in accordance with the current official advice.
