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

ECONOMIST: Japanese immigration

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

ECONOMIST: Men and machines

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.

CNN: Gartner's year-2000 survey finds widespread disruptions likely

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

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

CNN: World wastes half its food, study finds