Apparel Online Bangladesh Magazine April Issue 2019 | Page 49

BEYOND BD
Cambodia urges US not to rush for imposing trade
sanctions
A senior official from Cambodian
Commerce Ministry has urged the
US Government to not rush for
imposing trade sanctions and look
first at the happy faces of garment
workers. Notably, the country had
exported apparels and textiles
worth US $ 400 million to USA duty-
free in 2018.
Earlier, Alan Lowenthal and Steve
Chabot, two US Congressmen had
filed a bill that proposes the US
Government to remove Cambodia
from Generalized System of
Preferences (GSP), a preferential
trade scheme over human rights
accord. “It is just a request that they
come and look at every corner of the
country. They should come and see
what’s going on with Cambodians,”
said Seang Thay, Spokesman,
Commerce Ministry, Cambodia.
He further added that the economic
impact of removing Cambodia from
GSP would be disastrous. Moeun
Tola, Executive Director, Alliance
of Labor and Human Rights, said
that GSP was highly relevant for
Cambodian economy and so was
EU’s Everything But Arms (EBA)
scheme. Meanwhile, in a separate
development, over 1,000 workers
of W&D garment company walked
up to the Labour Ministry of
Cambodia on February 27, urging
the Government to allow the sacked
workers to get back to work. The
workers held banners demanding
the firm to take back the workers
who were sacked following a protest.
Recently, the management of W&D
garment company had said that
all workers could return to work
except the 127 who were sacked for
instigating workers to protest. women. “Out of the 1,800 garment
workers who protested last month,
only 742 will be returning to work,”
confirmed Dy Roth Khemrun,
Deputy District Governor. He further
added that the remaining workers
have said that they will resume work
only after the sacked workers are
reinstated.
Some workers said that the
company discriminated against old
workers, men and also pregnant The Governor said that the
Government requested the workers
not to march to the Ministry or
Prime Minister’s office as the
Ministry was striving to provide
a solution to the issue. Last year,
around 2,000 workers went on
strike demanding for seniority
bonus; however, the court instructed
the workers to resume work. The
factory said that the management’s
refusal to pay seniority bonus
complied with the court orders and
they had the right to sack workers
who continued to strike.
Sri Lanka's largest knitter witnesses
solid growth in second quarter
Teejay Lanka PLC, the largest
circular knitter in Sri Lanka, has
witnessed solid growth in net profit
for the second quarter.
The growth is mainly attributed to
a significant increase in production
capacity as well as impressive sales
in the US and EU markets.
The company said that the revenue
in Q2 (2018-19) was up by
25 per cent to reach Rs. 7.6 billion.
The profit before tax rose by
11 per cent to clock Rs. 500.2
million while the net profit grew
by 15 per cent to touch Rs. 425.5
million over the corresponding
three months of the last year. While
substantiating on the same, Bill
Lam, Chairman, Teejay Lanka, said
that it was the fourth successive
quarter of excellent revenue and
net profit for the company.
He further added that the
expanded capacity and strong
order stemming from GSP benefits
were instrumental in the company
recording consistently good
quarters. The company said that
though margins were affected by
increase in raw materials and
utility costs, the firm has been able
to enhance its gross margin to 11.3
per cent from 10.2 per cent in the
corresponding quarter. A lot of this
was attributed to the good sales
increase in the company’s US and
EU business units.
With GSP benefits and an
anticipated rise in EU business,
Teejay also expects to bring in more
business from India in the second
half of the financial year.
Teejay Lanka PLC supplies
fabric to some of the renowned
international brands across the
globe.
www.apparelresources.com | APRIL 2019 | Apparel Online Bangladesh
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