PHNOM PENH: Cambodia will have a total of 2,125 operational factories by the end of 2023, an increase of 7.21 percent compared to 2022, an official report pointed out on Tuesday.

The report by the Ministry of Industry, Science, Technology, and Innovation showed that by 2023, 241 new factories were opened and 98 factories were closed.

Factories operating nationwide have total investment capital of US$18.56 billion, up 11.24 percent from 2022, it said.

The value of factories' production volume was US$16.36 billion last year, an increase of US$531 million, or 3.35 percent compared to a year earlier, it added.

The industrial sector contributed about 7.7 percent to the economic growth in 2023, said H.E. Hem Vandy, Minister of Industry, Science, Technology and Innovation.

“For 2024, the industrial sector is projected to continue to grow at around 8.5 percent due to the expected recovery of the garment sub-sector while the non-garment manufacturing sub-sector continues to maintain strong growth,” he underlined at an annual meeting held on Feb. 20.

The garment, footwear, and travel goods industry is the largest foreign exchange earner for Cambodia. The sector currently consists of roughly 1,300 factories and branches, employing nearly 900,000 workers, mostly female.