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I believe the cpr and others have discounted the fact that we live in a WORLD economy.

Thailand is among a few countries in Asia that have received good ratings for their Y2K readiness. However, the ongoing economic recovery has put Asian countries, including Thailand, in a situation where they face a high risk of an economic meltdown resulting from Y2K bug if governments and corporations in the region fail to fully prepare for the uncertainty.

"The Asian countries will suffer Y2K related delays and damages totaling over US$90 billion,'' according to the International Monitoring, a specialist consultancy based in London. The $90 billion figure did not take into accounts legal or insurance costs.

The damage estimate scale, known as IM-Y2K Risk Rating, ranks countries from 0 to 9 with the higher number representing the higher risk each country faces. The average rating for Asian countries was 5.9, which corresponds to a damage estimate of 4 percent of GDP.

Considering the fragile nature of the economic recovery taking place in Asia, "a short, sharp macroeconomic shock combined with a potential flight to quality could prove dangerous to the existing economic recoveries," the organization warned.

If the IM-Y2K Rating maintains at the current levels, Asian countries will face another crisis that will again slow the economic recovery that has been moving forward recently. The International Monitoring has urged government and corporate clients to make appropriate contingency plans for the Y2K bug.

The International Monitoring has issued an updated report on the Y2K-preparedness of various countries worldwide. The analysis concluded that global preparedness for Y2K has made much progress, but some errors and delays are still expected and will create some damages to the global economy when the world rolls into year 2000.

The updated report said 45 countries have improved their Y2K risk conditions while some 39 countries slipped further behind in their efforts. In August, the International Monitoring reported that France, Germany and Japan were seen to be improving while the US slipped slightly while Russia fell way behind.

Some of the most-improved countries are Mexico, Argentina and Greece, while Russia, Malaysia and Taiwan have lost ground, increasing their riskiness by falling behind in their Y2K projects which already started late.

The biggest gains are being made in the financial services sector which were improving in 36 out of 49 countries while transportation was falling behind in 27 of the 49 countries. This failure in transportation could raise significant issues for supply chains.

Worldwide, the estimated spending for Y2K readiness is $600 billion. However, despite these attempts to fix the bug, global damages, excluding legal and insurance costs, are still estimated at over $1 trillion. The International Monitoring also noted that "delays and anticipated risks range from mild inconveniences such as short term rolling electricity brown-outs to serious health and safety risks in many countries."

The accompanying table indicates country improvement or slippage relative to prior risk assessments. The countries are ordered from net positive risk change to negative net risk change. A "+" sign indicates improvement, and a "-" sign indicates falling into riskier territory.

-- y2k dave (xsdaa111@hotmail.com), December 04, 1999

Answers

dave

The Canadian government has just recently come out with a new tv ad urging companies to take the problem seriously. For the government to do this at such a late date would seem to indicate they know there are still concerns.

-- Rachel Gibson (rgibson@hotmail.com), December 04, 1999.