Information Technology Infrastructure for Textile and Apparel Industry in Hong Kong

In many respects, Korean economy has been coordinated by the visible hand of the government. The world economy is becoming a borderless one, which directly affects the Korean economy driving it into an open economy. The rising cost of production factors, wage rates, interest rates, and land costs stalls economic growth. Both internal and external economic environment casts doubt over the prospects of the Korean economy. Both public and private sectors are looking for ways to maintain their competitive edge by improving economic efficiency , and one of those efforts is the use of IT. They are making an utmost effort to build the information-communication infrastructure , and promoting EC to explore new business opportunities. Various efforts are being made to facilitate the diffusion of the EC in Korea. The diffusion of proprietary EC within a con-glomerate may be made quickly with little trouble. The IOS or EC within a con-glomerate is highly likely to be a closed one, which is not unusual among Korean conglomerates. This may result in a situation that goes against global technological future: an open EC system. Korean corporates have recently devoted a vast amount of effort to business process reengineering using IT to improve efficiency. In contrasts, SMEs lack appropriate IT skills required for such innovative movements. This may result in a widening gap between SMEs and conglomer-ates in their corporate efficiency. Since cooperation among conglomerates and SMEs is very important to gain competitiveness in the global market, it is desired that conglomerates make up cooperative partnership with SMEs and promote more open relationships. Both parties will benefit from strategically cooperative relationships while specializing and repositioning themselves in the network of organizations via a smart adoption and use of IT. Globalization of industries is a defining trend of our time. The textile and apparel industry, in particular, is one of the most globalized industries in today's world. Hong Kong's textile and apparel industry is a leader in managing the supply chain on a worldwide basis. To maintain its prosperity and to deploy new computing and communication technology, we proposed an information technology (IT) infrastructure by which Hong Kong's textile and apparel industrialists can effectively and efficiently manage their global business. In order to succeed in the competitive global market, Hong Kong textile and apparel companies need effective communication among buyers, designers , merchandisers, suppliers and factories. With the increasing availability of computing and communication …