The first fully fledged multimedia library for garment workers opened in a factory in the Phnom Penh Special Economic Zone (PPSEZ) yesterday.

Sipar, a French literacy NGO, has already opened three small libraries in garment factories in Phnom Penh and Siem Reap.

However, in collaboration with the Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia, the first “library resource centre” opened yesterday at the Japan Rocks SEA factory in PPSEZ, offering a wider range of books and digital resources.

A total of 18 factories will have libraries by mid-2017, according to a statement.

“The workers are still at the age to receive knowledge. They must work hard to study . . . to improve themselves,” Huy Hanson, secretary of state at the Labour Ministry, said at the opening.

The three-year program will cost more than $600,000 and is expected to reach more than 20,000 garment workers.

“Some workers don’t get much education, so we need to read more books to increase our knowledge and know more about what’s going on in wider society,” said Kroch Srey Kouch, a female factory worker at Japan Rocks.