Most nations are not equipped to deal with millennium bug, says Y2K Centre

[irfankhan@altavista.net]

[Official Y2K Websites: 
Highly Informative: India;
Somewhat Informative: Bangladesh, Pakistan;
Limited Information: Sri Lanka]


Most nations are not equipped to deal with millennium bug, says Y2K Centre

Jim Wolf 
WASHINGTON 4 AUGUST 

NEARLY half the world’s nations lack Web sites dealing with the Year 2000 computer glitch, a potential blow to investor confidence, a UN-backed clearing house said on Tuesday. 

A survey by the Washington-based International Y2K Co-operation Centre found that 87 countries had no Internet sites about preparations for the possible failure of some automated systems on January 1 2000. 
Only 27 nations’ Y2K websites were "highly informative", while 15 were "somewhat informative" and 23 provided "limited information", the centre said. 
Another 47 nations provided information in languages other than English that the World Bank-funded centre said it could not fully evaluate. Bruce McConnell, a former technology official at the White House Office of Management and Budget who is director of the International Y2K Co-operation Centre, said the more readiness information disclosed, the better a country’s chance to maintain confidence at home and in international markets. 

"If little information is released, people will make decisions based on consultants or rumours," he said in a statement. "They may assume the worst - that adequate preparations have not been made." The International Y2K Centre was set up in February under UN auspices to promote global co-operation to minimise problems due to the date change. It defines readiness as upgrading systems to deal with the old practice of storing dates in two-digit fields and having back-up plans for systems that are not fixed. If information on the state of preparations is not provided, the consequences will be unpredictable and could be severe, the centre warned. It said an English-language website was essential for a country to be effective in the "international finance community and the press". The centre said, it was exploring ways to assist nations in translating their Y2K web-sites into English. The so-called Y2K glitch stems from fears that computers may misread the date on January 1 as 1900 !
instead of 2000, possibly disrupting systems from airlines to bank teller machines to power grids. 

The centre’s survey was carried out in July. Countries with "highly informative" Y2K websites included: Australia, Botswana, Great Britain, Canada, Chile, France, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Japan, Kenya, Lithuania, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Philippines, South Korea, Singapore, South Africa, Uganda and the United States. 

Somewhat informative Y2K websites were maintained by the governments of Azerbaijan, Austria, Bangladesh, Cyprus, Finland, Germany, Italy, Jamaica, Latvia, Malaysia, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Sweden and Switzerland. 

Limited information was found on the Y2K websites of the governments of Albania, Bahamas, British Virgin Islands, Bulgaria, Cayman Islands, Colombia, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Ethiopia, Lebanon, Malta, Mauritius, Nicaragua, Rwanda, Slovenia, Sri Lanka, St. Kitts & Nevis, Swaziland, Thailand, Trinidad & Tobago, United Arab Emirates, and Vietnam, the centre said. - Reuters 

http://www.economictimes.com/today/05tech05.htm


----------------------------------------------------------------
Get your free email from AltaVista at http://altavista.iname.com