Globalization's trail leads into the backstreets of Cambodia as computer companies look farther afield to fill basic jobs : Crossroads on the info hig

http://www.iht.com/articles/2003/01/27/btasia_ed3_.php

Cambodia suffers one of the poorest nations in Southeast Asia. For the most part their foreign investment and work in the industrial sector is focused within the textile industry, however the gains from outsourced jobs from India through the information-technology processing company Digital Data Divide is showing some signs of hope for diversification and job opportunities to otherwise disadvantaged persons.

India's economic boom in the world of technology has already begun to spill over into nearby countries with cheaper labor. Currently operations in Cambodia, Vietnam, and Lao have been set up to do the low-tech work required to fuel the high-tech powerhouses found in India. The benefits can be dramatic, these outsourced jobs working with computers not only provides skils training in a feild that allows a great deal of vertical mobility, but the base pay for entry-level positions out competes wages within the textile industry $70 to $45.

Digital Data Divide is also helping to improve the economic situation for an especially vulnerable population of disabled people. The bulk of the 70 person workforce within this company in Phnom Penh are physically, with the loss of limbs to land mines or other dibilitating accidents. The company is currently looking into expanding its operations and will seek to hire women rescued from sex trade. Managing the company in this way is mutually beneficial, as people from disadvantaged groups can often work for less while gaining a work opportunity they could not obtain otherwise.