One garment plant is still hiring because it makes military uniforms, which are required by law to be made in the United States.
Two people were killed and nine others injured after a ceiling collapsed at a shoe factory south of Phnom Penn in Cambodia, raising fresh concerns about industrial safely following last month's disaster in a garment plant in Bangladesh in which up to 1,200 people lost their lives.
Poultry farming, garment-finishing plants, and oil refining are important earners.
The TAL Group, which operates an immense garment-making plant in this coastal boom town, is moving beyond piecework by helping J. C. Penney electronically manage its inventory of dress shirts, from factory floor to retail shelves as far away as Connecticut.
Clients are lining up to secure loans for garment factories, power plants and steel mills, among other projects, says Sheikh Mohammad Maroof, the head of wholesale banking at City Bank, a private bank.There is plenty more scope to grow.
Contrariwise, the success of sustainable design and goods produced under humane conditions often depends upon the acceptance of new aesthetic paradigms, such as gardens consisting of wildflowers or edible plants, garments and furniture made with recycled or reused materials, and green buildings that reduce literal footprints on the land as well as carbon footprints.
Immigrants are also increasingly valued by corporate America; were the nation's six million illegal immigrants expelled tomorrow, thousands of restaurants, hotels, farms, poultry plants and garment factories and gardening companies would be forced to close for want of workers.
I called one of those plants, CHC Industries, a garment-hangers manufacturer just outside of Cleveland.
Mr. Seyha's company sold just one plant to a garment factory last year and so far in 2010 has aroused interest in three more.
