In practice, they provide cheap labour (mainly from Asia) for the garment industry, farming and fish-processing.

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Accounting departments are farming out tasks such as processing invoices and collecting payments from debtors.

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As far as the developed world, Britain has much more efficient farming practices, better transportation, storage and processing facilities.

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Some industries such as banking are fairly well along in making computer systems year-2000 compliant, but others, including food processing, agriculture and farming, some government services, construction, law, and medical practice are lagging, Marcoccio said.

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Then came construction, banking and securities broking in the 1980s, followed by overseas expansion (from prawn farming in Australia to a seafood-processing factory in Alaska in the early 1990s) and, finally, financial services.

ECONOMIST: Business and politics in Taiwan