=== Developing Countries in Sad Shape ===
'From:
news53@aol.com (News53)
7:06
Subject:
=== Developing Countries in Sad Shape ===
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Cutter Consortium's Ed
Yourdon on UN Year 2000
Meeting: Developing Countries
in Sad Shape
ARLINGTON, Mass., Dec. 17 /PRNewswire/ -- The following statement is being
issued by Cutter Consortium:
''Watching the UN Year 2000 meeting, it was sobering to see how many countries
found it necessary to repeatedly appeal for financial assistance and computer
experts to help them with what they euphemistically referred to as a 'late
start' in
their Y2000 efforts. The developing nations, in particular, were repeatedly
urged
to apply to the World Bank for assistance; but to illustrate the dimension of
the
problem, several of the countries needed financial assistance to pay for the
plane
fares to send two of their delegates to the conference!''
These comments are from Cutter Consortium Chairman and Year 2000 Expert Ed
Yourdon. Mr. Yourdon attended the December 11 United Nations meeting, which
focused on year 2000. Delegates from over 120 countries gathered in New York
City to spend a day discussing their respective plans, progress, and concerns
about
the Y2000 problem. Consortium Senior Consultants Howard Rubin and Peter de
Jager were also in attendance. Dr. Rubin prepared the Global Briefing Summary
for the National Coordinators.
Yourdon continues, ''The fact that such a meeting could take place at all, and
that
so many countries attended on relatively short notice, is a remarkable
testament to
the growing significance of the Y2000 problem; as UN Secretary General Kofi
Annan put it in his address, 'tackling the Y2000 bug is the largest and most
complex project undertaken in the history of computing.' Of course, if there
was
to be any realistic hope of repairing most of the world's computers in time,
the
conference should have been held four or five years ago.''
''Why should any of this matter to the typical private-sector, profit- oriented
organization? Primarily because, as Year 2000 Czar John Koskinen pointed out in
his opening speech in the morning, 'one country's problem is a problem for all
of
us.' ''
''The financial and political disruptions in Asia, Russia, and South America
during
the past year have certainly emphasized that point, and it was all the more
obvious
after a day's discussions with these UN delegates that Y2000 will create a
global
ripple effect like nothing we've ever seen before. And that should be
particularly
evident to the multinational companies, which include a hefty portion of the
*Fortune* 500 companies in the US, whose American CIOs are fond of bragging
that their companies are operating in 50 or 100 countries, in which departments
and subsidiaries are connected together via SAP, the Web, EDI, and Microsoft
Mail; and yet these CIOs seem oblivious to the possibility that a serious
national
Y2000 disruption in France or Brazil or Botswana could have a devastating
impact
on their company's profitability.''
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