Manila Y2K summit asks for WB, ADB aid

Manila Y2K summit asks for WB, ADB aid

MANILA (Reuters): Eighteen Asia-Pacific nations and economies
on Wednesday appealed for funding from the World Bank, Asian
Development Bank and other international financial institutions
to rid the region of the millennium bug.

They made the appeal in a 16-point Manila declaration summing
up the action they had agreed on during the three-day second
global Y2K summit in the Philippine capital.

The millennium bug, called Y2K, is a programming flaw in
computers that may cause them to crash on Jan. 1, 2000, causing
widespread confusion and chaos.

"It is agreed that the nations and economies of the Asian
region...call upon the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank and
other organizations and countries to review and increase their
level of support for national and regional Y2K efforts," said the
declaration issued at the end of the meeting.

Most of the costs of the Y2K compliance efforts in the region
have been borne so far by the private sector, Bruce McConnel,
chairman of the Washington-based International Year 2000
Cooperation Center, told reporters.

He said the funding being made available through multilateral
development banks in terms of grants and loans was very modest
from the standpoint of making a major impact on the funding
situation.

McConnel said there was still no estimate of the total Y2K
costs for the region.

Amable Aguiluz, chairman of the Philippine Commission on Year
2000 compliance, said Asian economies could use available World
Bank lending windows for developing countries, which include a
grant of US$500,000 from the United Kingdom and the United
States.

"At the same time, the World Bank has funding that is
available for developing Asian countries. The Philippines has
given its interest to borrow...securities grant from the World
Bank for its Y2K effort," Aguiluz told reporters.

"Malaysia, for instance, has already applied for a $100
million grant from the World Bank and it's now being considered,"
he said.

The declaration said the Y2K bug was not a mere technical
problem arising from a computer glitch "but a societal management
problem".

"If not addressed, (it) will adversely affect the delivery of
essential services in critical sectors of society, including
power, telecommunications, finance, transport, and health," the
statement said.

Delegates agreed that because of the interconnected nature of
systems, regional cooperation and the participation of
international sector organizations was essential to assure the
continued functioning of critical sectors in the new millennium.

They also vowed to increase information sharing across borders
on Y2K readiness, practices, lessons, systems as well as
failures.

The declaration was signed by Bhutan, Bangladesh, China, Fiji,
Guam, India, Indonesia, Japan, Jordan, Korea, Mongolia, Nepal,
Palau, Philippines, Syria, Thailand, United Arab Emirates, and
Vietnam. Hong Kong attended as an observer.