The government in Hong Kong has traditionally held a great deal of control over both macro-economic elements and the way in which companies do business, and thus it would be possible for the government to work with companies to help shift them towards the economic efficiencies of an e-supply chain. Because of the political structure in Hong Kong, Hong Kong firms cannot compete with Western firms, or Chinese firms, as efficiently as (for example) Western firms can compete with Chinese firms. However, Hong Kong firms do export an impressively large number of goods and thus the economy will be improved by even small improvements in the efficiency of shipping and tracking those goods. Automation of ordering, shipping and tracking processes whenever possible will thus help the economy, which was significantly damaged by the region wide Asian financial crisis that began in 1997 and was last year hit by the SARS epidemic, with unemployment rising to over 8 percent last year.
