Re Y2K: "..there is no reliable overview of worldwide preparedness"
Technology News
techweb.com
World Y2K Officials To Meet For First Time (12/10/98, 5:16 p.m. ET)
By Mary Mosquera, TechWeb
With just one year left before 2000 and computers worldwide perhaps set on a course for a chain reaction of glitches, officials leading national Y2K-compliance programs will meet Friday for the first time at the United Nations in New York.
"The consequences of unpreparedness in any one country can rapidly spill over to other parts of the world," said Ahmad Kamal, Pakistan's Ambassador to the U.N. and chairman of the U.N. Economic and Social Council's Informatics Working Group.
"At this point, many countries have barely begun to consider national responses, and there is no reliable overview of worldwide preparedness," Kamal said. The meeting will be primarily an exchange of national preparedness assessments. The United States will send two representatives: John Koskinen, chair of the U.S. President's Council on Year 2000 Conversion, and Sen. Robert Bennett (R-Utah), chairman of the Senate Special Committee on the Year 2000 Technology Problem.
The Y2K bug stems from computers unable to read the two-digit "00" date field as 2000, instead interpreting it as 1900, which could cause systems to function improperly or stop functioning altogether.
Developing countries have less money and fewer experts to confront the problem, and many governments are already preoccupied with economic crisis, natural disasters, and civil unrest.
"On Jan. 1, 2000, I'm concerned that countries in Africa, South America, Eastern Europe, and parts of Asia may, technologically speaking, fall off the map, leading to overnight financial abandonment by the international business community," said Bennett. "Today, when billions of dollars can be withdrawn in a keystroke, the effect on developing nations could be devastating, and would result in a negative ripple effect felt around the world."
Conference organizers hope it will inspire developed countries to muster resources for poorer countries, either before or after the fact of the century date change. "If it's difficult for the U.S., the economic giant, to have all its systems prepared in time, it's pretty grim for developing countries," said Don Meyer, a spokesman for Sen. Bennett. He was not optimistic that the meeting will result in a concrete plan to tackle the Y2K bug, but it may develop the impetus to create one in a subsequent meeting, he said.
But in all countries, aircraft control, telecommunications, and financial and government services are at risk, Kamal said. Some economists are concerned that business disruptions could destabilize international financial markets, many of which are still mired in the currency devaluations and economic turmoil of the past year and a half. Unprepared nations may see power losses, oil shortages, bank panics, and trade losses, the Gartner report said.
Among the countries participating in the Y2K conference are Bulgaria, Chile, Mexico, the Netherlands, the Philippines, South Africa, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
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