So maybe nobody cares. This is just another country. These are not really people anyway, right? Pollys do like to discount the smaller countries.

Got any Mutual Funds with money in Italy? Venezuela? Romania? Russia?

It will not be money much longer.

This from centraleurope.com for educational purposes only.

Funds, Bureaucracy Hamper Romania Y2K Plans

BUCHAREST, Jul 7, 1999 -- (Reuters) Chronic budget shortages and persistent bureaucratic barriers are hampering Romania's efforts to prevent computer glitches which could pose problems on New Year's Day 2000, the country's top Y2K expert said on Tuesday.

"Romania is late in completing the millennium compliance plan," Sorin Iliescu, head of the Agency for Communications and Computer Science, said in an interview.

"There is no explicit reference to Y2K in the 1999 budget. When the budget is adjusted later this year, the Finance Ministry should include funds for Y2K compliance."

The government adopted rules last week to avoid mishaps caused by the Y2K computer bug. Ministers set a July 30 deadline for Iliescu's agency to report on millennium compliance progress, with final checks to be done by mid-November.

Iliescu listed the power sector, telecoms, rail and air transport and banks among areas of greatest concern.

The country's sole nuclear plant, run with Canadian and Italian technology was of less concern, he said, than the national grid as a whole.

"It's not the Cernavoda nuclear plant on the Danube that we're most worried about, but the fact that we still have no confirmation whether the national grid is Y2K compliant."

The millennium bug is based on fears that some computers formatted to read years with just two digits will assume the double zero representing 2000 stands for 1900 and cause malfunctions.

Romania was late in taking action, with many bureaucrats failing to grasp the issue. "We still have a lot of education work to do," Iliescu said.

Financing for millennium compliance first came in 1997, as aid from the U.N. Development Program. The World Bank also gave a $95,000 grant to Romania last year.

Also last year, Prime Minister Radu Vasile appointed an eight-member "Millennium Council" made up of government ministers and Iliescu to oversee compliance with Y2K rules.

Iliescu said that when he was appointed to head the agency in 1997, he found only a few computers and no network linking them at the government's headquarters.

Things have since improved in terms of equipment and the agency, which has replaced the communications ministry, is now pressing for tax breaks for imports of Y2K compliant equipment.

The Romtelecom telephone operator has hired a consultancy to evaluate Y2K-related risk, with the Conel electricity authority expected to follow suit. The central bank is running its own compliance checks.

"I would get very worried about New Year 2000 if by July 30 we didn't get the data from the most critical areas -- power, telecoms, trail and air transports and banks," Iliescu said.

-- Mike Lang (webflier@erols.com), July 07, 1999

Answers

This is not a good link night for me.

-- Mike Lang (webflier@erols.com), July 07, 1999.

Bummer of a link, Mike.

Truth is? Romania could drop off the planet without us noticing. Truth is? There are lots of countries like Romania that we will notice.

-- Dog Gone (layinglow@rollover.now), July 07, 1999.

Yep, Romania sounds even worse than Italy. But Romania is a relatively insignificant country, (umm, unless you live there,) while Italy is a G7 country, i.e. a rich industrialised country, and it's collapse will be felt elsewhere for sure.

-- number six (Iam_not_a_number@hotmail.com), July 08, 1999.

Romania is not insignificant.

THE PORT OF CONSTANTZA, FOR EXAMPLE, MUST BE OPERATIONAL OR THE RESULTING IMPORT AND EXPORT BREAKDOWN WILL DIRECTLY IMPACT EUROPE AND THE MIDDLE EAST AND INDIRECTLY, THE U.S.

The Port of Constantza is the largest port of the Black Sea and one of the most important of Europe, having the annual traffic capacity of 85 million tons. Located at the crossing of the commercial routes linking the Europe with the Middle East, Far East, North Africa and the Commonwealth of Independent States with Central and West Europe, the port of Constantza is able to play the role of a gateway for the regional and international trade. Its location at the end of the Rhine-Main-Danube corridor allows the direct access to a shorter and therefore cheaper transport way bound for Central Europe compared with the routes using the North Europe ports. The Danube-Black Sea Canal has its mouth right in the Southern part of the port, allowing direct transshipment of the cargo from the seagoing vessels into barges.

Sincerely, Stan Faryna

-- Stan Faryna (info@giglobal.com), July 08, 1999.

As I recall, George Soros was going to solve the y2k problem by putting together a firm of Romanian programmers.

-- de (delewisX@inetone.net), July 08, 1999.

If you were a farmer, especially a truck farmer, you would be astounded at the farm machinery from Romania that is used in this country. We own two pieces ourselves. Probably every other tractor in Australia is from Romania. Agriculture machinery is big business and so are replacement parts!

Taz

-- Taz (Tassie @aol.com), July 08, 1999.

I stand corrected!

-- Dog Gone (layinglow@rollover.now), July 08, 1999.

Yeah......and we make salads regularly with Romanian lettuce..............uh.....oh yeah.....oops.......sorry, false alarm.....that's Romaine lettuce.

-- Craig (craig@ccinet.ab.ca), July 08, 1999.

Hey Taz, all this time on the B-board together and I never realised that you're an aussie too. I guess your name should've spelt it out for me. g'day.

-- number six (Iam_not_a_number@hotmail.com), July 08, 1999.