Beijing Says Key Sectors 95 Pct Y2K Ready

greenspun.com : LUSENET : TimeBomb 2000 (Y2000) : One Thread

Beijing Says Key Sectors 95 Pct Y2K Ready

Updated 2:14 AM ET December 3, 1999

BEIJING (Reuters) - Beijing is 95 percent ready to handle the millennium bug, but the Y2K problem might hit some hospitals and ill-prepared small and medium firms, the city government said on Friday.

"Our key areas such as telecoms, power, water and heating supplies are more or less 95 percent Y2K-ready and the daily life of Beijingers will not be disrupted when the time comes," city official Hua Ping Lan told Reuters.

Hua, vice director of the city government's information technology office, said potential glitches in the healthcare industry existed, but there were ways for hospitals to divert them.

"Some medical equipment (has) embedded chips and it's tough to modify their dates. It's possible to consult the original manufacturer to find a solution, but some of these makers might have ceased to exist," Hua said.

His advice to these hospitals was to avoid using equipment heavily reliant on computers and resort to alternatives.

"The Health Ministry conducted checks on some equipment and singled out those which are likely to be hit by the bug," he said.

"When the crucial time comes, traditional medical equipment may be more reliable than the most advanced ones which are mostly computer-controlled," he said.

Some analysts fear the Y2K bug could cause chaos when computers programmed to recognize only the last two digits of each year confuse 2000 with 1900.

Hua said some companies in Beijing might be dogged by the Y2K bug due to complacency and ignorance.

"There are many small and medium companies which have shrugged off the Y2K bug all along. It's impossible for us to approach everyone and try solve their problems," he said.

Hua said it was difficult to estimate the total amount of money Beijing had pumped into Y2K prevention.

But he said the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Beijing Telecom and two of the city's major power companies spent more than 180 million yuan ($21.74 million) in tackling the bug.

The city government spent about 3.2 million yuan in Y2K training, public education and testing tools, he said.

======================================= End

Ray

-- Ray (ray@totacc.com), December 03, 1999

Answers

China [& Russia] is rife with pirated hard & software.

-- Mitchell Barnes (spanda@inreach.com), December 03, 1999.

Moderation questions? read the FAQ