More than 100 new factories were registered during the first nine months of the year, creating over 50,000 jobs, a government spokesman said yesterday.

Oum Sotha, spokesman for the Ministry of Industry and Handicraft, said the ministry recorded 116 new factory openings from January through September, providing 51,548 new jobs.

“According to our figures, factory growth was 11 percent larger than during the same period a year ago,” he said, adding that the openings push the total number of registered factories in the Kingdom to 1,554.

“Some small factories have shut down because they were just operating as subcontractors, however, the big factories are all operating as normal,” Sotha said.

He projected strong factory growth figures for the remainder of the year, noting that beverage giant Coca-Cola was expected to open a new $100 million factory in Phnom Penh SEZ in December.

In addition, manufacturers are expected to open factories to take advantage of the US government’s recent decision to expand the Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) scheme to allow travel goods produced in Cambodia to enter the US market duty-free.

Ministry data also showed that 260 new small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) registered during the first nine months of the year, creating 2,344 jobs. This brings the total number of registered SMEs to 39,091, which collectively provide nearly 200,000 jobs.