Phnom Penh, 9 February 2005 — Representatives of Gap Inc. and the Mekong Private Sector Development Facility signed an agreement today to provide managerial training for 650 supervisors working in garment factories producing for Gap Inc. in Cambodia. Gap Inc. is one of the world’s leading apparel retailers and a significant buyer of garments produced in Cambodia.
Speaking at the launch, MPDF’s General Manager, Adam Sack, stated his hope that the training will develop fairer, more respectful and more effective supervision in factories. “This is important because supervisors serve as the bridge between labor and management and could make a significant difference in maintaining and continuing to improve labor standards and conditions in Cambodia.”
The program will also train Khmer speaking line leaders and other supervisors who work closely with employees on the production floor. This training will be offered in Khmer.
H.E. Cham Prasidh, Senior Minister, Ministry of Commerce, who also attended the launch, expressed the government’s appreciation for the new Gap Inc./MPDF training program. “Maintaining and continuing to improve labor standards is extremely important in Cambodia. More than 270,000 people work in garment factories and related businesses and if we count themselves and all those dependent on them, their salaries support about one and half million people. As an IFC/World Bank study showed in December, good labor standards and conditions are important to at least half of the companies buying garments from Cambodia and a key reason why a number of companies continue to increase their orders.”
Gap’s training program was initially developed for some of Gap Inc.’s factories in Indonesia and India. Independent evaluations of the program in Indonesia indicate that it greatly improved interaction between supervisors and subordinates in the target factories. Positive additional effects include reduced absenteeism, improved problem solving, fewer rejects and defects and lower employee turnover – all factors that can increase a company’s profitability.
Gap Inc. chose MPDF as its partner in Cambodia because the Facility has extensive experience in developing and localizing management training. MPDF has developed a suite of affordable, locally-tailored Khmer language resources for training the managers of small and medium sized companies. These are marketed under the Business Edge brand and are designed to improve the performance of managers and would-be managers by teaching the fundamentals of marketing, human resources management, quality control, finance and accounting, and personal productivity.
