Now comes the bad news: The American trade privileges that have given Cambodia its edge in the world textile market -- and made it a model in the global battle against sweatshop labor -- will expire at year's end, and the future looks less certain for the industry's 240,000 workers, 90 percent of them women.
"I'm quite worried that my children may lose their jobs and be forced to return to work on the rice farm when the land itself is uncultivable," said the sisters' mother, Lai Kheang.
But there's hope, too: Mindful of the anti-sweatshop campaign that appeals to the consciences of Western shoppers, Cambodian factories have built a reputation for fair employment practices they hope will keep Gap and Nike coming.
In Cambodia's long struggle to overcome its modern legacy of war, communist dictatorship and Khmer Rouge killing fields, followed by a messy democracy that has done little to raise living standards, the garment industry has stood out as something of a miracle.
With nearly half the population of 14 million earning $1 a day or less, many families have benefited from having a daughter or two making ski suits or denim dresses.
Clothes accounted for $1.4 billion, or 98 percent, of the country's export earnings last year. The industry has grown from 49 factories in 1996 to more than 200 factories, according to the Garment Manufacturers' Association in Cambodia.
The factories, mostly in or near Phnom Penh, the capital, make clothes for contractors to such giants as H&M, Gap, Nike and Columbia Sportswear.
They owe their success largely to a unique 1999 deal with the United States to raise low-tariff imports of Cambodian garments in return for the government improving abysmal labor conditions. The United Nations' International Labor Organization has been inspecting factories, suggesting improvements and publishing their findings.
At W&D (Cambodia) Co. Ltd., factory manager Grace Chen said the company has benefitted. "Buyers have more confidence in us, with all these improvements . . . so we have benefited from that," the Taiwanese manager said, noting that orders for the company's sportswear have increased and it is adding four more production lines.
Abuses, such as shortchanging wages and forced overtime, continue at some plants, but overall the industry has made solid strides. "What we're seeing over time is a gradual lifting of the standards," said Ros Harvey, the ILO's chief technical adviser in Cambodia. "The presence of the ILO was an important factor in our decision to remain in Cambodia" after a 2000 television expose of the use of child labor in Cambodia, Gap said in its "Social Responsibility Report."
"We . . . saw the opportunity to make real progress in labor conditions through collaborative initiatives," it said.
Today, Gap buys from 33 Cambodian factories and is supporting a program to teach workers about their rights. But next January, after Cambodia joins the World Trade Organization, it will lose its special deal, and fears India and China will scoop up some of its business.
"I think a lot of our factories have been told by their buyers that definitely some . . . orders will go to China," said Ken Loo, secretary general of the Garment Manufacturers' Association in Cambodia. "If nothing happens in Cambodia and the cost remains what it is today, then a lot of them were quite frank to say that a big chunk of the business will go."
Some Cambodian factories are pinning their hopes on creating a niche market for socially conscious customers. Competing "will require making as much noise as you can about the hard work you have done and must continue to do to uphold labor standards," Michael Keller, an economic officer at the U.S. Embassy, warned representatives of the garment sector in a speech.
"For the near term, say for the next five years, Cambodia's garment sector will survive only as long as its reputation as a niche market, as one that respects workers' rights, survives." Loo said the manufacturers are working with a foreign aid donor to publicize their labor record and are considering a "social branding" plan.
Auret van Heerden, president of the Fair Labor Association, an anti-sweatshop group based in Washington, acknowledges Cambodia's progress and the likelihood that it will suffer when it loses its special trade status.
He believes its garment industry can survive as a niche market capitalizing on its labor record. The question is whether that record will survive the departure of the ILO monitors, whose contract runs until the end of 2005.
Van Heerden thinks it will -- that apparel companies doing business in Cambodia will launch their own initiatives -- as Gap has already done -- or support a local nongovermental group to enforce labor standards as is already happening in Bangladesh and parts of China.
Protecting workers' rights pays off financially in the long run, van Heerden said. "It's an abnormal situation for these multinationals to be in, but they need to do it to ensure that labor conditions are respected," he said.