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Technology Stocks : Y2K (Year 2000) Stocks: An Investment Discussion -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: R. Bond who wrote (11081)	4/19/1998 3:23:00 PM
From: Frost Byte	Respond to of 13949

Australian Government Pledges Emergency Y2K Cash (04/19/98; 10:12 a.m. ET) By Stewart Taggart, TechWeb The Australian government has approved a special emergency fund of $82.5 million to help ensure essential government services can be delivered in the year 2000 when the computer date-change problem strikes. The decision was made Wednesday as the Australian government acknowledged in a statement that many of its agencies and other businesses will not have prepared their computer systems for Jan. 1, 2000. The Australian government said it was "concerned about the potential for significant, international economic and social disruption if appropriate compliance steps are not taken now to remedy the problem." Progress within government agencies and the wider business community toward year-2000 problem solving, has been slow to meet the immovable deadline of Jan.1, 2000, the Australian government said in a statement. When the date changes, computers that use two digits to represent the year will misinterpret the change from 99 to 00 as a move backward, and malfunction. The bulk of the emergency money will be used on an as-needed basis for preparing computer systems in government agencies that provide key services such as social welfare, employment payments, defense and national security, health and security, and revenue collection. The money is in addition to year-2000 funds already contained in ministry and agency budgets (for which progress reports must be made quarterly to the Federal Cabinet) that approved the funds, so no agency goes begging. The extra money will provide "an additional top up," said Jeremy Griffith, spokesman for Industry Minister John Moore. "We realize Y2K is a very big issue, a very important issue, so we want to make sure funding is available to address this," added Griffith. In addition to providing emergency funds to government agencies, a small amount of the total has been earmarked to pay for third-party auditing of government agency year-2000 compliance, as well as provide legal advice on year 2000 issues and to establish testing regimes. Money also will be set aside for an advertising and awareness program of year 2000 issues targeted at the generalbusiness community. In an appearance on a domestic radio program, Industry Minister Moore said the Australian government was taking the threat posed by year 2000 problems very seriously. "We have heard from experts, we have listened, and we have reacted," he said.