Cambodia have been an agricultural country since ancient times and have been farming rice ever since. Rice is Cambodia’s main food source and an important indicator in the economy as it contributes to about a third of the Cambodia’s economy. Cambodia’s agriculture sector have received an annual growth of 5.3% from the year 2004 to 2012 which was one of the highest in world (World Bank, 2015). In 2013, Cambodia became the world’s fifth largest rice exporter and second biggest exporter of premium jasmine rice which reached 378,856 tons (Hunt, 2014). Cambodia’s rice export could possibly reach its full potential producing up to 3 million tons of rice with a total export value of $2.1 billion which is roughly 20% of the GDP. Royal government of Cambodia have selected 3 pronged strategy- productivity enhancement, diversification and commercial agriculture to sustain agricultural production (SNEC, 2010). Agricultural development have increase the wages of farmers in Cambodia’s country side and have decrease the poverty rate from 50% in 2007 to only 18% in 2012 (World Bank, 2015). Because Cambodia is still a developing country many of the nation’s population are farmers. But because the economy keep on growing more and more farmers were able to afford tractors and harvesters instead of using cattle to plough paddy fields. The microfinance sector saw a rise in demand for loans from small businesses mostly associated with agricultural purposes in the first quarter of 2011. Domesticate lending have totalled $473.4 million at the end of the first quarter of 2011with the number of borrowers increased up to 14.4% (Makara, 2011).
2. Tourism sector
Cambodia is a country filled with cultural and architectural history dating back to ancient times. The main tourist attraction in Cambodia are the historical heritage sites such as Angkor Wat, which is also pictured in the center of the Cambodian national flag. In 2013, the number of international tourist arrivals have increased to 4.2 million which is 17.5% higher than 2012 (MOT, 2013). Siem Reap is a province located in the northern part Cambodia is the main tourist attraction which is an important factor to the economy because 50% of the occupations in Siem Reap are related to tourism industry (Biddulph, 2010). Many businesses in the area are engaged to tourism from luxury hotels and restaurant to a budget friendly guesthouse and street vendors. Uk Someth, Apsara Authority’s deputy director have quoted that the 3 key factors to develop Siem Reap are economic development, social relations and environmental protection. But because of the rise of tourists visiting Siem reap every year, many of residents were trained to work as tour guides, carpenters, servers and many other craftsmanship’s. Despite having many tourist visiting Cambodia, there are still threats of sex tourist seeking child prostitution. US State Department’s Trafficking in Persons reported in 2014 that tourist from other parts of Asia, Europe and United States travel to Cambodia to engage in underage prostitution. Cambodian government have a law the will penalise the offender ranging from 2 to 15 years in prison for sexually exploiting children (Dombrowski, 2015).
3. Textile or garment industry
The garment industry in Cambodia is considered to be one of the three pillar of the country’s economy alongside agriculture and tourism sector. It has contributes to about 16% of Cambodia’s economy (textile world Asia, 2013). In 2014, exports of the garment and textile industry have increased a total of $5.3 billion which is higher than the previous year which contributes about $4.96 billion (GMAC, N/A). Despite the increase in the number of exports, there has been many controversies surrounding the industry over the minimum wage of garment factory workers in Cambodia over the past few years. Trade unions NGOs and Cambodian garment workers have been on strike demanding a higher minimum wages. The minimum wage was increased from $80 to $100 but it’s still not enough to the relevant living wage of $283 (Cambodia daily, 2014). Despite the actions of the government to raise the minimum wage to $128 per month in November 2014, workers are still campaigning to raise the minimum wage to $177 (LICADHO, N/A). Many of the world renown fashion brand that have established factories in Cambodia have agreed to increase payment for the clothes that is made in Cambodia such as H&M, Zara and Primark they have also request to see cooperation with trade unions (Industriall-union, 2014) Apart from low wages, the garment industry other controversies such as poor working conditions and with low wages, factories workers are most likely to be malnutrition and too weak to perform well on the job. Human Right Watch have been complaining about the inhumane working condition and labour abuse. Senior women’s right researcher at HRW, Aruna Kashyap have requested that the government to take measures to enforce the labour law and defending workers from abuse (Kaplan, 2015).