A Fine Thread in Cambodia

The garment sector in Cambodia employs more than 600000 people, mostly young women. It is at the basis of fundamental sociological changes with whole villages emptying to fill the factories and thereby shifting from what was mainly an agrarian society to an increasingly urbanized one, while at the same time financially empowering women. The increase in urbanites also has a profound political impact in a country which has been ruled by the same Prime Minister for more than three decades. A steady economical growth under an autocratic regime fueled by corruption, for the last 15 years has exacerbated income differences and has not given the working class much hope for improvement.