Mastercard recently announced a global effort to pay garment factory workers digitally, a pivot the industry is making from traditional cash payroll to ensure workers receive their hard-earned wages securely and consistently. Partners include Levi Strauss & Co., Marks & Spencer, VF Corporation and global non-profit Business for Social Responsibility (BSR). The program aims to improve the well-being of factory workers who currently lack access to the financial tools and services that can help them and their families thrive. Around the globe, 230 million adults – nearly 85 percent of adults in low-income countries — who work in the private sector receive their wages in cash. But getting paid in cash creates significant challenges for both employees and factory owners. Not only are workers at risk for theft, but they also have limited ability to save and often have to take days off to travel miles to pay household bills. Mastercard and its partners are coordinating pilots in Egypt and Cambodia with a hybrid digital payment solution, according to a press release from the company. Participating factories will have the opportunity to deposit wages directly into workers’ accounts. Workers can then activate debit or prepaid cards–or digital wallets–through which they can pay bills or send money directly to family and friends. Providing hands-on peer training on digital financial services, financial planning and management, and how to discuss finances with family members can help make workers feel comfortable and confident transacting digitally. By partnering with companies that use labour-intensive supply chains, including garment manufacturing, Mastercard is creating digital solutions and delivering training support to give workers more control and transparency over their earnings and savings.

Border trade between Myanmar and India reached $194.6 million as of September 13 in this fiscal ending September—an increase of $57 million over the figure during the same period of the previous fiscal, according to the former’s commerce ministry. Myanmar’s exports to India were worth $171.3 million and its imports were worth $23.3 million. The two countries engage in border trade primarily through Tamu, Reed and Thantlang trade camps, while a major part of bilateral trade are delivered through ships. Myanmar mainly exports fruits and vegetable, fishery and forestry products to India, while importing medicines, electronic products, motorbikes, cotton yarn, non-alloy steel and other construction materials. Myanmar’s border trade with its four neighbours—China, India, Thailand and Bangladesh—totalled $9.6 billion—$6.7 billion in exports and $2.9 million in imports, a news wire reported.

Cambodia on Friday raised next year’s legal minimum wage for workers in its crucial textiles and footwear industry to US$190 (5,800 baht) per month, an increase of 4.4%, amid pressure from the European Union over its human rights and political record, officials said. The garment industry is Cambodia’s largest employer, generating $7 billion for the economy each year. It faces uncertainty after the EU in February began a process that could suspend the country’s special trade preferences. “The minimum wage for textile, garment and shoe workers for 2020 is set at $190 per month,” Labour Minister Ith Sam Heng said in a directive on Friday, adding that the new wage takes effect in January. Cambodia benefits from the EU’s “Everything But Arms” (EBA) trade programme, which allows the world’s least-developed countries to export most goods to the EU free of duties. Pav Sina, president of the Collective Union Movement of Workers, said unions would accept the new hike, although it fell short of their $195 demand, after a representative vote. “Even though this figure is not what we wanted as our position, it is positive, as Cambodia is in the midst of uncertainties of the trade preferences,” Sina said. “If our wage goes higher than countries in the region, we will also suffer,” Sina said. The EU, which accounts for more than one-third of Cambodia’s exports, including garments, footwear and bicycles, in February began an 18-month consideration that could lead to the EBA suspension. The re-examination of the European preferences began after the arrest of opposition leader Kem Sokha and the dissolution of his party, leading to longtime Prime Minister Hun Sen’s party’s holding all seats in parliament. Ken Loo, secretary general at the Garment Manufacturers Association of Cambodia, said employers accepted the new minimum wage but were concerned about rising pay. “We are always worried … we are always concerned about rising wages, but we also understand that we just have to go up in line with inflation and other factors,” Loo told Reuters on Friday.

Vietnam’s garment-makers have been worrying that a draft revised Labour Code will reduce their competitiveness – but four months after the draft was published there remains a strong chance it will never be enshrined into law. The draft, which was officially submitted to the National Assembly in May for an envisioned passage in November, outlines a reduction of working hours from 48 hours per week to 44 hours. According to the Vietnam Textile and Apparel Association, this would reduce the industry’s export value by at least US$3bn per year, as businesses would struggle to recruit workers. The current regulation that sees businesses in the textile, garment and footwear sectors have an annual overtime cap of 300 hours, and guarantees overtime pay is the equivalent of at least 150% of the regular wage, remains in place under the draft. Notably, competing garment-manufacturing neighbours Laos, Cambodia, the Philippines and Malaysia still have 48-hour working weeks. A survey by just-style among Vietnamese-based industry observers shows a wide variation in predictions about the draft code’s future. The head of office of a Hanoi-based law firm described the draft’s fate as still being “largely unpredictable,” whereas a B?n Cát Town-based factory manager, who asked not to be named, said that it will not make it, given “there’s already too much negative feedback from all sides in Vietnam.” By contrast, Saponti Baroowa, the associate director of business intelligence at professional service firm Dezan Shira & Associates in Ho Chi Minh City, sees the proposed reduction of weekly working hours to 44 as likely to be approved. “Recently, the politburo of the central committee of the communist party of Vietnam also issued Resolution 50-NQ/TW, which noted, among other things, that the majority of FDI projects in the country are small-scale and concentrated in the labour-intensive sectors at the lower-end of the value chain,” Baroowa says. “In this context, the politburo has urged investment officials to become more selective in approving FDI applications and to give preference to projects that use high-technology and produce more value-added products, and the proposed change in the maximum permissible weekly work hours also seems to be in line with such measures to revamp the overall FDI policy.”

Indonesia recently notified the World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) Committee on Safeguards that it initiated on September 18 three safeguard investigations—the first on fabrics; the second on yarn (other than sewing thread) of synthetic and artificial staple fibres; and the third on curtains (including drapes), interior blinds, bed valances and other furnishing items. “Those having substantial interest and wishing to be considered as interested parties in this investigation should submit written request within a period of 15 days in Indonesia from the date of initiation to the Investigating Authority,” WTO said on its website. A safeguard investigation seeks to determine whether increased imports of a product are causing, or is threatening to cause, serious injury to a domestic industry. During a safeguard investigation, importers, exporters and other interested parties may present evidence and views and respond to the presentations of other parties. A WTO member may take a safeguard action, i.e. restrict imports of a product temporarily, only if the increased imports of the product are found to be causing, or threatening to cause, serious injury.