This month Cambodia, one of the world''s poorest nations will join the World Trade Organisation. This is expected to boost the garment industry of the country.

To attend the Sept. 10-14 WTO ministerial meeting to sign accession documents after four years of negotiations a Cambodian delegation is leaving on Friday for Cancun, Mexico.

Cambodia, one of the world''s poorest nations, will be the first from the U.N. list of "least developed countries" to join the WTO, followed by Nepal.

"I can say that Cambodia has earned its grace back in the world trading community. This is the ultimate achievement," said Sok Siphana, Cambodia''s deputy commerce minister.

Recently emerging from three decades of civil war and Khmer Rouge genocide, Cambodia still relies heavily on foreign aid for about 60% of its annual budget. About 36% of its 12.8 million people live on less than US$1 a day. Corruption is rampant, and people lack confidence in the
judicial system.

But the garment industry has improved the fortunes of some.

With about 220 factories, the industry employs more than 200,000 workers producing clothes for brand names such as The Gap, Banana Republic and Polo. Garments and footwear have been Cambodia''s main engine of growth in recent years, making up 85% of its total exports of US$1.5 billion
last year, most of it going to the United States.

The global garment industry is now governed by a system that allows developed countries to impose quotas on imports from abroad to protect domestic textile industries.

But WTO members will no longer be subject to quotas from January 2005. Non-WTO nations, however, would still be subject to quotas.

If Cambodia does not join the WTO now, "we will be dead," said Sok Siphana. Officials also hope that garment manufacturers in neighboring Vietnam, a non- WTO country, will move operations to Cambodia.

"The WTO membership is a big incentive for the factories to remain and also to attract more factories that have difficulties in neighboring countries such as Vietnam," said Van Sou Ieng, president of the Cambodian Garment Industry Association.

Van Sou Ieng said Cambodia''s cheap labor will work to its advantage.

Still, WTO membership doesn''t guarantee success. Cambodia will be forced to compete aggressively with exporters such as China, Pakistan, Bangladesh and India.

Membership also will mean Cambodia will have to open all its markets, which would lead to a deluge of cheap rice, vegetables and fruit from neighboring Thailand. That could hurt the livelihoods of Cambodian farmers, who make up a big chunk of the population.

But Sok Siphana, the deputy commerce minister, noted that Cambodia also would gain access to new markets such as China and India.

Experts say, however, that Cambodia still needs to reform a bloated bureaucracy and corrupt judicial system.