Interview with Mr. Emerald Am, Chairman of the Garment & Manufacturing Committee and Chairman of Benelux Cambodia
For our weekly interview, Senior Communications Officer Stew Post sat down with Mr. Emerald Am, Chairman of EuroCham's Garment & Manufacturing Committee. Along with holding this position in the Chamber, Mr. Am is also Country Manager for LABS and Chairman of Benelux, the Belgian, Dutch and Luxembourg business chamber in Cambodia.
Always looking for new ways to support the business community and contribute to improving safety standards in Cambodia, the conversation touched on Mr. Am's work with LABS, gender equity, and the future of Benelux in Cambodia and the region.
Stew: It’s been about two years since we last sat down for a discussion and you’re involved with a lot of different initiatives and projects. What have you been up to since the end of 2022?
Emerald: Since joining EuroCham, I was elected, and then re-elected, as Chairman of the Garment & Manufacturing Committee. I was also recently elected as the Chairman of Benelux (the Belgian, Dutch and Luxembourg business chamber in Cambodia) back at the end of May. As you may know, there aren't many Belgian, Dutch or Luxembourg businesses here and of course, we don't have the embassies here – they're either in Vietnam or Thailand.
Now we're trying to see how we can collaborate with businesses in Vietnam and in Thailand to see if they're interested in the Cambodian market and how we can help with any type of data sharing. Léa (EuroCham Membership Officer) is helping with this.
Besides that, I just completed my term as the Vice Chairman of IDH's (LABS parent company) Global Employee Council. And in 2024, I joined the board of Humans of Phnom Penh, trying to show the good side of Cambodia, specifically in the capital.
Lastly, I also started school again in the fall of 2023. I'm currently in the dual master program at the Royal University of Law and Economics with a degree from Paris University. I expect to hopefully finish at the end of July and defend my thesis.
Stew: Well, you are certainly staying busy. For those unfamiliar with the project, can you talk a little bit about LABS and some of the program’s recent developments?
Emerald: The point of LABS is to mitigate electrical, fire and structural safety risks in factories. In May 2022 we launched the program in Cambodia, three years after we launched in India and Vietnam. To date, we have brought in 115 factories to the program, and we've graduated two factories.
We do this work primarily by coordinating with different partners. We have different inspection firms that go in to assess the factories, for example. They provide a report based on different priorities: which one is more urgent, which one can take a little bit longer to remediate. We also have partners going in and training. We do a lot of TOT (training of trainers) and train key factory personnel – compliance, HR, supervisors, security guards, production managers, GMs and even owners – and we require a minimum of 40% women in these trainings. We have partners that do quality assurance and reassess 10% of all factories.
We also have a workers' helpline. Because one of the key issues that's been brought up, especially within ILO, GIZ, and the Responsible Business Hub, is the need for a grievance mechanism. So, we have our own workers' helpline where they can report any safety-related issue – that's what it's mainly for – but they can also report any other issues. It could be payroll, sexual harassment, you name it.
Stew: Last time we spoke, you mentioned that preventing sexual harassment in the workplace was a key priority for the Garment and Manufacturing Committee. Has there been any progress in this area?
Emerald: Yes, with LABS we work on better jobs and gender equality, and so far we've conducted three gender workshops. We launched our third gender platform on December 20th with GIZ Fabric Cambodia co-hosting. We set up panel discussions, typically two panels per year, on two main topics. This year was gender-based violence and harassment prevention and the importance of men's engagement in safety.
We looked at the Nari Rotana 6 strategy – that's the Royal Government of Cambodia's 5-year plan (2024-2028) within the Ministry of Women's Affairs. We bring in key stakeholders, from government ministries, NGOs, CSOs, the private sector. We brought in LABS and non-LABS buyers along with LABS and non-LABS factories and union representatives.
They discuss these topics on the panel and then provide us suggestions for the way forward. After this third one, we are working with GIZ to come up with a recommendation paper, hopefully in mid-February.
Stew: Aside from the ethical value of creating safe working spaces for women, is there a profit-based argument for eliminating sexual harassment and gender-based violence in workplaces? How do you convince brands that these efforts are in the best interest for their business?
Emerald: Sharing critical data related to efficiency and profitability is one of the best tools to share with the factory owners and management team. For instance, CARE mentioned in a study a few years ago that sexual harassment within the garment industry costs Cambodian factory owners $89 million a year. So, at the time, with the number of factories, it cost each factory around $14,000 a year for not impleneting key mechanisms to prevent sexual harassment.
I’ll go with GAP. They had a PACE (Personal Advancement & Career Enhacement) program where they were helping empower women within the factory. For every factory that signed up, they saw a 250% increase in profit by helping women get into leadership.
These are the key information and data that you want to share with factory owners, then at the end of the day, it's up to them if they want to utilise it. In the future, this can have an adverse effect on growth, as many European buyers are beginning to adhere to the EU's Due Diligence Directive that will come into effect in 2026.
Stew: Beyond your work with LABS and the Garment and Manufacturing Committee, what’s on the horizon for Benelux? Any big plans?
Emerald: I think we have nine or ten members right now and the plan is to double or maybe triple that this year. It's only January so that's perfect. We have 12 months to grow. We need to look out for more businesses and then our goal is to reach out to the honorary council for Belgium. I want to be able to talk to some of the ambassadors, see if there's any plans to expand or develop any business incentives to come into Cambodia.
For Benelux, if you look at Vietnam, it's huge there. They call it B-Lux because it's just Belgium and Luxembourg since there's a huge business community there, but they also have a separate Dutch business association. They actually have two Dutch associations and they're 80, 90, 100 plus members.
So, Vietnam has always been a key point for investments for them and we're right next door, right? It's similar to tourism. We always wonder why people fly over Cambodia to Thailand or fly over to Vietnam and skip Cambodia?
Cambodia has a lot to offer. We have a lot of different business and tax incentives and the government, in my opinion, is very forward-thinking. They're very open. They are grateful to foreign businesses that recognises Cambodia's as a key investment hub in Southeast Asia. So, we have a good plan to hopefully get that to 20 to 30 members. I want to add at least 10 to 20 more members this year. You know, especially with EuroCham support, it shouldn't be a problem.
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