PHNOM PENH, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) -- Cambodia had imported garment and textile raw materials in equivalent to 1.22 billion U.S. dollars in the first six months of this year, 19.6 percent rise from 1.02 billion U.S. dollars in the same period last year, showed the data from the Commerce Ministry on Saturday.

The garment and textile raw materials include cloth, buttons, threads, and other accessories; they have been imported from China, China's Taiwan, Japan and South Korea.

At the meantime, the figure also showed that the country's garment and textile exports had increased by 45 percent to 1.93 billion U.S. dollars in the first half of this year from 1.33 billion U.S. dollars within the same period last year.

Cambodia's purchasers of garment and textile products are the United States, European countries, Canada, Japan, South Korea, and China.

Garment and textile industry represented more than 90 percent of Cambodia's total exports. The sector has 262 garment factories employing 319,313 workers and 36 foot-wears factories with 56,643 workers.

Last year, the country had exported a total worth of 3.4 billion U.S. dollars of garments and foot-wear products, up 27 percent from 2.67 billion U.S. dollars in a year earlier.