Taiwan's preparations for the millennium bug are proceeding on schedule, with virtually all sectors, government and private, saying there should be no major problems associated with the Y2K bug. However, the clear laggard is the manufacturing sector, with less than 70 percent of surveyed companies having completed preparations by the end of July.
All 471 financial institutions, including local and foreign banks, bills finance companies, investment and trust companies, credit card companies, credit cooperatives, and credit departments of farmers' and fishermen's associations completed testing by the end of June.
An official from the Ministry of Finance said from now on the ministry will focus on supervising contingency and emergency drills among financial institutions and disseminating information on readiness and, starting December 31, ATMs will be closed for 36 hours until noon on January 1 to prevent any mishaps.
Supervisory bodies and exchange executives say they are ready. Securities and Futures Exchange officials said data on the state of testing has been required from brokerages on a monthly basis for months, and almost all are compliant.
Both the Taiwan Stock Exchange and Taiwan Futures Exchange say planning and testing were completed months ago.
Nearly 70 percent of the manufacturing sector had completed tests by the end of July, according to government data. Of 5,450 manufacturers whose total production value accounts for 75 percent of the total sector's value, 69 percent had completed testing, 18 percent said tests are still underway, and 13 percent said they were still revising computer programs.
As for preparations among 1,000 surveyed small- and medium-sized companies, only 43 percent had finished tests, 38 percent were still testing, and 21 percent were revising programs.
Aviation systems are well prepared, and aviation officials say there should be no safety problems. Authorities said testing was completed at the end of February. In April, the International Air Transport Association acknowledged Taiwan as the first place to pass its Y2K compliance reviews.
Two Y2K drills have been carried out since June with satisfactory results, and a third will be held in October. Authorities said domestic airlines have also completed all testing and the equipment in their fleets are all Y2K compliant.
Chunghwa Telecom has completed its Y2K programs and has undergone both regular internal auditing and external testing. It has also completed renovation and testing work on its billing systems. All call records will be kept so as to assure billing data in times of need. It has a thorough Y2K crisis-management mechanism, has worked out contingency plans and has conducted emergency drills.
Government agencies in charge of the water supply system said all compliance work was finished as of the end of June. Taipei's water department said inspection, modification and testing of all water treatment and supplying facilities' hardware and software was completed by June-end, but that in the event of an emergency, it still can operate the pumping stations manually.
RSS