'UN Resolution Calls for Global Cooperation on Y2K
The United Nations will take up a resolution shortly calling on member states to
raise the priority of the Year 2000 issue and forge global cooperation.
Speaking at the World Congress on Information Technology in Fairfax, VA,
Ambassador Ahmad Kamal, chairman of the UN Working Group on Informatics, said
the resolution calls on the Economic and Social Council to prepare action
guidelines for member states at its meeting next month, and establishes a UN
monitoring and reporting system.
Briefing a series of wide-ranging UN actions in his remarks, Kamal said, ".we
are far, very far, from being sanguine about results." He noted that common
action, not finger-pointing, is the solution. "Y2K is obviously a challenge,
but it is also an opportunity," he said. "Great potential exists in several
developing countries to assist in addressing the global dimensions of the
problem.Many developing countries.have a large pool of software developers and
engineers capable of analyzing and re-writing the non-compliant programs, and
doing so at a fractional comparative cost."
Kamal, Permanent Ambassador to the UN from Pakistan, spoke on a Year 2000 panel
which also included ITAA President Harris Miller, International Chamber of
Commerce Secretary General Maria Cattaui, and IBM Year 2000 Global Initiatives
General Manager David Cassano. Panelists' remarks are available at
conferencecast.worldcongress1998.org.
Vice President Al Gore participated in the World Congress via interactive video
and urged conference attendees to get the Y2K job done. Perhaps responding to
recent criticism by House Speaker New Gingrich and other Republicans in
Congress, Gore referred to the rhetoric surrounding the Year 2000 issue. He
urged high tech business leaders to action, particularly where big businesses
are in a position to help their suppliers.'
...
'Y2K comatose countries may panic when they learn about the peer pressure plans
of the Joint Year 2000 Council to create country by country Y2K status pages on
the web. The Council is co-sponsored by the Basle Committee on Banking
Supervision, the G-10 central bank governors' Committee on Payment and
Settlement Systems and other groups.'
...
'In European Union member states, the Moody's executive said that the Euro
conversion generally racks up several times the budget attributed to Y2K
efforts. Y2K compliance, he said, is often viewed as a "necessary evil" in
these countries. The Euro grabs mindshare, he indicated, for political as
well as economic reasons.'
...
'And that's the good news. "In many emerging markets, both banks and many bank
regulators are still utterly unprepared for Y2K-indeed, they are often even
unaware of the real challenges of the process," Theodore said. Elsewhere, he
indicated, language and cultural differences may prove to be significant
challenges to Y2K compliance.'
...
'3M estimates it will spend $70 million to make its Y2K correction. The good
news, according to Tibesar, is that the repair process appears to cost less than
industry averages. Nor has the St. Paul site been racked by rampant wage
inflation for Y2K workers. Unknowns include the embedded systems area, where
Cripe says she is depending on engineers who are still in the process of
determining the extent of the company's exposure; and contingency planning,
which Cripe admits has taken a back seat to the July conversion deadline.'
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From the ITAA news letter |
