The Cambodia’s garment exports grew by 20 per cent in 2013. Garments and textiles account for 80 per cent of Cambodia’s total exports. Exports grew despite the 131 strikes the sector saw during the first 11 months of the year—a 10-year high. In December, thousands of garment workers joined protests to demand doubling of monthly minimum wages. The number of lost mandays due to strikes was 825,646 during the first 11 months of last year, an increase of 54 per cent compared to the same period a year ago.

Frequent strikes lead to mounting financial losses for garment manufacturers because of missed shipments and lost orders. The number of factories in Cambodia has increased 30 per cent. Against this backdrop a growth in the value of garment exports by 20 per cent doesn’t appear to be much.

Cambodia has about 800 garment and footwear factories that employ about 600,000 workers, mostly women. Workers in Cambodia's garment sector frequently toil in poorly ventilated factories and work excessive overtime hours. Malnutrition leads to a phenomenon of mass fainting. Batches of workers in a factory collapse in some sort of phased manner.