| Working Group
of Statistical Experts, 11th Session |
| Bangkok,
23-26 November 1999 |
| Ready to
face the new century? |
| Contents |
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Summary
This note gives
a summary of the secretariat's activities
in creating awareness about the year 2000
problem in the region. It explains the
secretariat's response to the Commission
resolution 55/3, "Strengthening the cooperation
and support of nations in the Asian and
Pacific region in addressing the year
2000 problem". The United Nations internal
contingency planning is briefly described
to give background and focus for the Working
Group's discussion on late-stage Y2K preparations.
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| Awareness
creation activities of ESCAP |
| 1. |
The tenth session of the Working
Group of Statistical Experts in November 1997
marked a start for ESCAP's Y2K awareness creation
activities in the region1/.
The Y2K problem was subsequently discussed in
the Commission session in April 1998. The technical
culmination of the secretariat's awareness creation
activities was the Workshop on the Year 2000 Problem
in Computers and Strategic Issues for National
Statistical Offices2/,
organized in collaboration with SIAP from 18 to
19 June 1998. |
1/
The discussion can be recalled from the Statistics
Division's Web site, see the report of the tenth
session of the Working Group of Statistical Experts,
http://www.unescap.org/stat/cos10/wgse10/wgse10r.asp.
2/
Selected documents are available at http://www.unescap.org/stat/gc/y2kws.asp
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| 2. |
In late 1998, the eleventh session
of the Committee on Statistics (Bangkok, 24-26
November; see report at http://www.unescap.org/stat/cos11/cos11_report.pdf)
and the Seminar on Application of Information
Technology in National Statistical Offices (Taejon,
Republic of Korea, 15-18 December; see report
at http://www.unescap.org/stat/meet/itnso/itnsorep.asp)
took stock of the remediation plans and efforts
in NSOs. Participants in both meetings provided
evidence that the awareness was at a totally different
level compared to the situation in 1997. Most
NSOs that spoke on the item were feverishly replacing
and rectifying their affected systems. |
| 3. |
The received feedback, particularly
the responses by several participants of the Taejon
Seminar who had previously participated in the
ESCAP/SIAP Y2K Workshop, indicated that ESCAP's
awareness creation activities had a significant
impact by kick-starting rectification in many
fields. ESCAP's technical activities on the Y2K
problem were mostly directed to national statistical
offices, but their inputs were utilized to generate
awareness in the public sector in general. The
Commission's debates in 1998 and 1999, Y2K coverage
in consecutive issues of the Government Computerization
Newsletter (http://www.unescap.org/stat/gc/gcnl/gcnlhome.asp,
issues 10-13) and ESCAP's Web pages (http://www.unescap.org/stat/gc/escapy2k.asp)
have been servicing that broader angle. |
| 4. |
It is worth noting that member
States did not initially include any external
Y2K - related activities in the secretariat's
work programme. The awareness creation activities
were undertaken at short notice by stretching
existing resources allocated to the Statistics
subprogramme. |
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| Resolution
55/3 |
| 5. |
Limited by resources, the ESCAP
secretariat recognized early on that its role
on the Y2K problem had to be limited to creating
awareness about it. Any comprehensive regional
coverage and assistance to the actual rectification
work at individual affected sites were beyond
its means. |
| 6. |
However, in what can be seen
as an indication of the markedly improved awareness
of the problem, the Commission passed in April
1999 resolution 55/3, "Strengthening the cooperation
and support of nations in the Asian and Pacific
region in addressing the year 2000 problem". The
full text of the resolution is appended in the
Annex. Members and associate members proposed
that the secretariat should have a further role
in assessing the general preparedness status in
the region and in facilitating the exchange of
information and experiences on the problem resolution. |
| 7. |
The resolution acknowledged
various national and international awareness creation
efforts and called for added resources for fighting
the problem. The formulation of the text was not
easy as the secretariat did not have resources
for Y2K work. The Commission agreed that the action
was needed first and foremost at affected locations,
but the latter were for all practical purposes
beyond the reach of international organizations.
It considered effective means of action, such
as deploying "firefighting" experts to assist
developing countries in their contingency planning
and in advising governments as and when critical
problems arose. However, such requests were dropped
from the final resolution text because of the
lack of resources and the uncertainty of obtaining
them on a scale that would make a difference. |
| 8. |
Eventually, the Executive
Secretary was requested, in operative paragraph
8 of the resolution,
- to report to the Commission
annually until the fifty-seventh session (i.e.,
in 2000 and 2001) on the progress achieved
and the difficulties encountered by members
and associate members in addressing the Y2K
problem.
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| 9. |
He was also requested, in operative
paragraph 9, to seek extrabudgetary resources
for
- a survey on sectoral and
national Y2K readiness in the ESCAP region
- monitoring sources of
funding available for developing countries
to address the year 2000 problem;
- gathering information
about technical assistance available (towards
the resolution of the year 2000 problem) for
developing countries from United Nations bodies,
specialized agencies, and intergovernmental
and non-governmental organizations; and for
- identifying useful Y2K
reference points for developing countries
(Web sites, mailing lists, expert contact
lists, etc.) on the Internet.
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| 10. |
Thus, the implementation of
most of the resolution's activities depended on
success in raising extrabudgetary funds. Some
actions were urgent and most of them had to be
completed well before the end of 1999. Otherwise,
they could have no impact on the resolution of
the year 2000 problem. |
| 11. |
After the Commission session,
the secretariat approached several bilateral and
multilateral donors for funding, but those efforts
did not yield any results. In response to the
appeals in paragraphs 4-7 of the resolution, the
Executive Secretary brought the resolution and
its calls for action and regional cooperation
to the attention of concerned members and associate
members, United Nations bodies and specialized
agencies, intergovernmental and non-governmental
organizations, and the World Bank, the Asian Development
Bank and selected multilateral organizations. |
| 12. |
At the time of writing in early
November 1999, it is clear that the secretariat
will be unable to act as implied in paragraph
9 of the resolution. In other words, its future
involvement in the year 2000 problem will be limited
to submitting reports to the Commission in 2000
and 2001. |
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| Discussion
by the Working Group |
| 13. |
The Internet, bookstores and
the press contain ample material on various technical
issues involved in the Y2K problem, types of systems
affected, rectification alternatives and management
issues involved. However, information on general
or sectoral preparedness status in various countries
in the region is scarce and hard to verify. Preparedness
appears to be the best in sectors that have international
exposure, such as banking and finance, and civil
aviation. At the time of writing, little public
panic is apparent; stock markets have not experienced
any Y2K correction, for instance. Publicity campaigns
may have worked, or perhaps public fatigue caused
by constant exposure has set in. |
| 14. |
As the critical century change
draws nearer, private and public sector organizations
are increasingly releasing public statements on
their achievement of full Y2K compliance. Although
the majority of those claims are made in good
faith, clients and the general public usually
have no means to assess their reliability. It
is likely that at some point some systems that
were thought to have been rectified will fail,
because their testing has not been thorough. It
is certain that there are organizations that have
not yet done enough to rescue their mission critical
applications, either because they started too
late or because they believe that their systems
are not exposed to the problem. |
| 15. |
Many small and technologically
less advanced NSOs will be spared the worst of
the Y2K problem because of PC-dominated computing
and the low penetration of automation. Probably
the worst-case scenario for all is that the power
supply fails. |
| 16. |
Many governments provide preparedness
information on the Web. However, only three3/
of the known 24 NSO Web sites in the region contained
in early November 1999 statements or information
related to the Y2K preparedness. Open disclosure
policies create confidence among customers and
general public. Some governments are using legislative
incentives to encourage manufacturers, traders
and service providers to make public statements
on their organizational and product compliance.
The New Zealand Government, for instance, has
passed legislation that protects those who make
or republish a Y2K information disclosure statement
from civil liability for anything in the statement
except under certain circumstances. Examples of
such circumstances include
- if the statement is misleading
or reckles
- if the statement is intended
to induce customers to acquire goods or services
- if the statement is made
in the course of contract negotiations infringements
of intellectual property rights.
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3/
See Australian Bureau of Statistics: http://www.abs.gov.au,
follow link Year 2000 Problem, Australia (Cat.
no. 8152.0); Census and Statistics Department,
Hong Kong, China: http://www.info.gov.hk/censtatd/intro/Y2K/Y2000.asp;
and Statistics New Zealand: http://www.stats.govt.nz/,
follow link "Year 2000 (Y2K)"
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| 17. |
Considering the availability
of technical material from various sources and
the general awareness about issues involved with
the problem, the Working Group might want to restrict
its discussions on the Y2K problem to sharing
information on the preparedness status and last
hour contingency preparations in individual NSOs. |
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| United
Nations contingency planning |
| 18. |
The internal preparedness of
the United Nations may be of interest to the Working
Group. The Administration has expressed confidence
that the United Nations will achieve Y2K compliance
on time. External factors that are beyond the
Organization's control are being taken into account
in contingency plans. |
| 19. |
The internal Y2K remediation
efforts at ESCAP and other United Nations bodies
have been following industry recommendations,
which emphasize the importance of making proper
inventories of problem applications, prioritizing
their remediation, and testing all systems properly.
Senior level managers are responsible for achieving
Y2K compliance and for formulating and implementing
where necessary contingency plans. |
| 20. |
At the global level, the United
Nations contingency plans pay particular attention
to the most critical business functions, such
as being able to hold a Security Council session
under any circumstances, and to maintaining open
lines of communication with Member States and
critical staff, especially in the field. Also,
the ability to communicate with media is of high
priority. Those functions are backed up at the
location by security and fire command, and medical
services. |
| 21. |
Contingency planning at the
United Nations takes into account alternative
scenarios, for instance continuing normal operations,
continuing in degraded mode, or aborting functions
as quickly as possible. Apart from just reaching
the projected Y2K failure date, the contingency
plans would also be invoked when a Y2K renovation
milestone is missed, or serious system failures
are encountered. Scenarios are made for different
durations of the plan, i.e., for how long operations
are expected to be run in a contingency mode.
For the duration of contingency operations, procedures,
roles, responsibilities and authorities are set.
Particular attention is being paid to the availability
of resources (staffing, materials, supplies, power,
water, communications, etc.) which might be quite
different from a normal business-as-usual situation.
Contingency preparations include procedures for
both preventing and recovering data loss and damage.
The staff have been given advice on their personal
preparations, including travel on business. ESCAP's
contingency plans follow the global guidelines,
with adjustments to suit local circumstances. |
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| Y2K
preparedness of the ESCAP secretariat |
| 22. |
The ESCAP secretariat expects
to be fully Y2K compliant by the end of the year.
The following rectification efforts have taken
place: noncompliant and under-capacity PCs, representing
approximately half of the installed base, will
have been replaced by the end of the year. This
compares to the recommended annual replacement
of 20 per cent. LAN hardware and software (Banyan
Vines, Windows NT) have been upgraded. PCs have
been migrated from the previous United Nations
software standard for operating systems and database
management, spreadsheets and wordprocessing to
the Office 97 suite of products and WIndows 98;
e-mail is being migrated from cc:Mail 6 to Lotus
Notes 5. Telephone and telecommunications software
and equipment have been upgraded, with some minor
work still underway. The operating systems of
HP9000 host computers have been upgraded; also
the database engine (Sybase) has been upgraded.
Compliant modules of the Integrated Management
Information System have been installed. Although
the ESCAP Statistical Information System (ESIS)
itself was designed to be Y2K compliant, it is
scheduled to be upgraded to Y2K compliant Sybase
and PowerBuilder environments from late 1999 to
early 2000. ESIS is not a mission critical application
as it has not yet been made fully operational.
ESCAP's payroll, accounting and other administrative
applications have been rectified in-house and
are scheduled for immediate testing. Upgrades
have been implemented as necessary in building
management systems. Safety and Security contingency
plans have been drawn up and approved. Payroll
dates have been moved forward, and advisories
have been issued to staff on making personal preparations,
including travel on business. |
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| Annex.
ESCAP resolution 55/3: Strengthening the cooperation
and support of nations in the Asian and Pacific
region in addressing the year 2000 problem |
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Adopted on 28 April 1999
by the fifty-fifth session of the United Nations
Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the
Pacific (ESCAP) |
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Sponsored by: Mongolia,
Pakistan, Philippines, Russian Federation and
Viet Nam. |
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The Economic and Social Commission
for Asia and the Pacific, |
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| Recalling the
deliberations of the Commission at its fifty-fourth
session, at which it expressed deep concern about
the predicted disruptions that the year 2000 (Y2K)
problem in computers and embedded chips was likely
to cause, urged all governments to make resolution
of the problem a high priority, encouraged all
members to share their experience in resolving
the problem and asked the secretariat to facilitate
such regional cooperation, |
| Recalling also
General Assembly resolutions 52/233 of 26
June 1998 and 53/86 of 7 December 1998, both entitled
"Global implications of the year 2000 date conversion
problem of computers", and Economic and Social
Council resolution 1998/45 of 31 July 1998 entitled
"Suggested guidelines for addressing the year
2000 problem of computers", |
| Recognizing that
the effective operation of governments, businesses
and other organizations is threatened by the Y2K
problem, which if not addressed effectively may
adversely affect the delivery of essential services
in critical sectors of society, including power,
telecommunications, finance, transport and health, |
| Noting that
the awareness creation efforts of the secretariat,
other United Nations bodies and member governments,
while not resolving the problem, have helped to
generate strong national Y2K remediation and response
efforts, |
| Appreciating
the availability of abundant technical material
on the Y2K problem, including the papers and proceedings
of the workshop held jointly by the Commission
and the Statistical Institute for Asia and the
Pacific in June 1998, and the existence of funding
mechanisms such as the year 2000 grants of the
World Bank, |
| Acknowledging
that the year 2000 coordinators and their
representatives from 17 economies in the Asian
and Pacific region convened in Manila from 1 to
3 March 1999 to discuss national Y2K readiness
and to plan cooperation on information-sharing,
transborder Y2K issues, and continuity planning
and response, |
| Underlining the
need for further effective action to address the
problem, given the inflexible nature of the deadline
and the current state of preparedness within the
region, |
| Emphasizing that,
while coordinated efforts by governments and private,
public and international organizations are required
to address the Y2K problem, primary responsibility
for Y2K compliance and remediation action lies
with the top management of each affected organization, |
| Noting also
that high-quality public information is a powerful
tool in combating the Y2K problem, |
| Recognizing also
that the increasing interdependence of economies
and the interconnected nature of computer systems
call for concerted and coordinated action at the
regional and global levels, |
| 1. |
Appreciates the initiative
of the Philippines in promoting international
cooperation in information technology by sponsoring
the Second Global Year 2000 Summit in March 1999; |
| 2. |
Urges all members and
associate members to take early and effective
action to bring their countries to the highest
possible level of year 2000 (Y2K) readiness, not
only for their own benefit but also to minimize
adverse Y2K effects on vital sectors of other
countries; |
| 3. |
Calls upon members and
associate members to practise open disclosure
policies and enhance sharing of information across
borders on Y2K readiness, best practices, lessons
learned, embedded systems, and Y2K failures and
successes; |
| 4. |
Appeals to all members
and associate members to forge regional and global
cooperation to ensure a timely and effective response
to the Y2K challenge and to work together to address
the threats that the problem poses globally; |
| 5. |
Urges all member States
to expedite the remediation of their systems to
guarantee the continued availability of basic
infrastructure services, to use public information
channels to urge the private sector to become
Y2K-compliant and to disclose its readiness status,
and to develop contingency plans to address the
possibility of large-scale failures in the public
and private sectors; |
| 6. |
Calls upon all concerned
United Nations bodies and specialized agencies,
intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations
and other members of civil society to enhance
and combine their efforts to support regional
and national Y2K initiatives; |
| 7. |
Calls upon the World
Bank, the Asian Development Bank and other multilateral
organizations to review and increase their level
of combined support for national and regional
Y2K efforts; |
| 8. |
Requests the Executive
Secretary to report to the Commission annually
until the fifty-seventh session on the progress
achieved and the difficulties encountered by members
and associate members in addressing the Y2K problem; |
| 9. |
Further requests the Executive Secretary
to seek extrabudgetary resources:
- To monitor closely actual
and potential sources of funding to support
the efforts of the developing countries, in
particular the least developed and landlocked
countries, and the countries with economies
in transition, to address the Y2K problem
and to facilitate the dissemination of relevant
information on those funding possibilities
to members and associate members;
- To continue to facilitate
the exchange of national experiences on the
Y2K problem, and the sharing of information
and expertise available with various members
and associate members, including through the
use of the Internet, before, on and beyond
1 January 2000;
- To collaborate fully with
all concerned United Nations bodies and specialized
agencies, and intergovernmental and non-governmental
organizations, in facilitating the provision
of support and technical assistance for members
and associate members that find difficulty
in addressing the Y2K problem;
- To ascertain from United
Nations bodies and specialized agencies, by
30 September 1999, the state of Y2K readiness
in the region in their respective areas of
competence.
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