General Assembly Session 55 meeting 58

The President

I give the floor to the representative of Lesotho to introduce draft resolution A/55/L.28.

Mr. Mangoaela (Lesotho)

At the end of the twentieth century, the year 2000 problem (Y2K) threatened computers and digital systems around the world. Left unaddressed, Y2K would have seriously disrupted vital financial, business, health and government services and could have interrupted electricity and telecommunications. While primary responsibility for addressing the problem rested with each organization delivering the service, a unique international cooperative effort was organized to provide mutual assistance among the Member States of the United Nations. As a result, the world entered the twenty-first century experiencing only minor Y2K problems. Draft resolution A/55/L.28 captures the success that was that unique international initiative.

Because the most critical aspects of Y2K were addressed successfully, the full extent of the threat it posed to everyday life will never be known. However, in the late 1990s a broad consensus emerged that Y2K could cause at least four serious problems. First, Y2K failures could cause serious social and economic harm. Computer software and hardware that supported financial processes, ranging from global financial flows, to government payrolls and benefits, to small business inventories, were highly vulnerable because of the extensive use of dates in those systems. Y2K-induced errors could cause many of those systems to stop working entirely.

Secondly, public overreaction to Y2K fears could cause serious hardships. Fears that supply chains would be disrupted could cause hoarding of scarce commodities, such as pharmaceuticals. Fear that the financial system would not be ready for Y2K could cause a run on banks. Developing countries were particularly at risk with regard to potential panic selling of investments perceived as risky and the disruption of their tourist industries. Although a few dislocations did occur, no real panic ensued, because people believed correctly that the world was ready for Y2K.

The third risk was a political one. Y2K failures or panic lasting more than a few days could cause political instability. Indeed, the importance of maintaining public confidence in the Y2K preparations became the preoccupation of the global Y2K team in the last months of 1999.

Fourthly, widespread serious computer problems would likely reduce public confidence in information technology, slowing growth in that industry and potentially derailing technology-led economic growth world-wide.

Beyond those risks, however, Y2K offered a variety of valuable opportunities to the world. Among nations, it presented an opportunity to create and test a new form of organization -- the first "virtual" international organization -- to address a global problem. Y2K was seen as a common menace that threatened every country. Economic and security interdependence meant that no country was an island. The problem's clear-cut nature and unyielding deadline gave urgency and clarity to the work. Sharing of information about workable approaches to the problem and about progress towards readiness became paramount. That environment fostered the creation of an agile but official mechanism to validate and share quality information around the world.

It is against this background that I recommend to this Assembly the adoption by consensus of draft resolution A/55/L.28.

Mr. Stuart (Australia)

Australia welcomes the Secretary-General's report evaluating the outcome of the steps taken in the United Nations system and by Member States to resolve the problems of the year 2000 date conversion for computers. My delegation would also like to acknowledge and applaud the efforts of the Permanent Representative of Lesotho, one of the leaders in this field.

The Secretary-General's report contains a lot of good news, and, as is often the case with success stories of the United Nations, this good news does not seem to have attracted much attention. My delegation would like today to highlight some of the benefits derived from the concerted and intensive approach, nationally and internationally, aimed at managing the so-called "millennium bug". We also want to draw out some of the lessons learned from our Y2K experience. I shall focus largely on Australia's experience but do so acknowledging not only that many other countries have their own success stories to recount, but also that the United Nations system's own efforts deserve recognition.

The Y2K problem arose because programmers entered dates in computer code without reference to the century. That may have seemed like a good idea at the time, but the expediency of reducing the cost of storing computer data overlooked the longer-term costs of ensuring that programmes would run after 31 December 1999. With the approach of the centenary year, computer users, and the many more who relied on computer systems, began to focus increasingly sharply on the prospect that computer systems might recognize the year 2000 -- represented in computer code by the two digits "00" -- as the year 1900.

As far back as 1997, the Australian Government was convinced that Y2K was a real threat. The potential economic impact, security risks and consequences of inaction called for a pro-active role in countering that threat by stringent testing, remedial measures and contingency planning.

The written version of our statement, which has been circulated, provides a summary of the institutional, policy and financial dimensions of the Australian Government's response. In short, by September 1999, the Australian Government was confident enough to adopt a "business as usual" approach to the critical date change period. This confidence proved to have not been misplaced.

By mid-December 1999, it was announced that all Australian Federal Government agencies were Y2K-compliant. This task involved testing almost 3,500 systems in over two and a half years at a cost of over half a billion dollars in Australian terms. A similar process of testing and taking remedial measures occurred across our private sector.

Mr. Stuart (Australia)

Australian Federal Government departments reported only three minor incidents. These were assessed as low or very low impact because the problems were fixed within a very short time. The Australian private sector reported a low number of incidents. The same pattern was evident internationally -- no systemic disruption, but some concrete glitches. The Secretary-General's report states that, in the first place, within the United Nations system a similarly thorough approach to Y2K readiness produced a similar result -- in essence, no serious problems. In the second place, reporting from units around the world to the United Nations showed no significant Y2K disruption.

Y2K was the first global challenge attributed to information technology. By its nature, it required effective action against an immutable deadline. Unaddressed, it had the potential to cause serious disruption to key services around the globe. International networks of cooperation, information sharing and teamwork proved a unique success, with many examples of nations' sharing information and cooperating with those nations less technologically advanced.

In Australia's case, we provided technical assistance to Pacific rim nations through the Agency for International Development. The Y2K Project Office also shared and disseminated information about Australia's preparedness with other countries. Our Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade monitored international Y2K issues and, through its overseas posts, offered information-sharing arrangements with regional and global agencies and offices. Australia was also an active participant in the arrangements established by the United Nations itself, including the International Y2K Cooperation Centre and the work of the United Nations Joint Situation Centre.

My delegation believes that we can draw a lot from the way that the Y2K challenge was met. Some of the lessons learned relate to our national experience. For one thing, Y2K induced Australians to review and improve their understanding of society's reliance on, and hence its potential vulnerability to, computerized systems. It prompted greater awareness of the redundancy and inefficiency of systems in use. Organizations had to take stock of their technological assets and identify mission-critical systems. Business and Government organizations -- and, as noted in the Secretary-General's report, United Nations bodies -- developed contingency plans for system failure. Through the Y2K compliance exercise, organizations took the opportunity to upgrade their systems as a cost-effective way of removing constraints inherent in their existing environment. The resulting boost to our technological infrastructure enhanced Australia's position in the digital economy and positioned Australians to take greater advantage of e-commerce and on-line market opportunities into the future.

Cooperation between the public and private sectors was enhanced in the face of a common, immutable and unique threat. Australia also used the Y2K exercise to improve coordination of our emergency response mechanisms. As was the case with many other countries, this resulted in Australia's emerging from the potential threat of failures with a greater understanding of how different areas of our society can communicate and work together effectively.

Internationally, we can also draw on some positive outcomes. We were conscious of becoming part of a wider process, a global partnership, through the Year 2000 Project Office. This underscored the benefits of information-sharing, coordinated responses and transparent and comprehensive information dissemination.

While some nations embarked on preparations to minimize potential Y2K disruptions with years to prepare, late-starting nations benefited from the knowledge acquired by the early starters through information-sharing. Such cooperation provided a framework for multilateral mutual assistance in a way that demonstrated that public/private and cross-border transactions and interactions could work positively for common benefit.

We can reasonably conclude that the nations which shared information and conducted self-reporting exercises on Y2K in an atmosphere of trust and cooperation are all the more likely to work together in the future, facing similar challenges. The Y2K experience may be viewed as a wake-up call. It alerted many of us to our reliance on computer systems and it also forced the public sector and industry and, with the United Nations assistance, the developed and the developing countries to work together under the pressure of an immutable deadline. It also showed the potential for more effective avenues of communication, both domestically and internationally. Y2K was not simply an information-technology issue -- it was a challenge to the way we live our daily lives in those parts of the world that have come to depend on computer systems and it was a challenge that saw the world unite for the common good. This was indeed an encouraging start to our new century.

Mr. Sotirov (Bulgaria)

On behalf of the Bulgarian delegation, I am pleased to reaffirm Bulgarian support for the activities undertaken within the United Nations system and with Member States to resolve the Y2K problem. My delegation would also like to convey its appreciation to the Secretary-General for his report on the evaluation of the outcome of the steps taken to address the so-called "millennium bug".

I wish also to congratulate the Ad Hoc Open-ended Working Group on Informatics and its Chairman, Ambassador Percy Mangoaela, for the excellent work they have done. We appreciate all the Organization's efforts to manage the year 2000 issue. My Government also highly values the support provided to the countries in transition provided by the dissemination of relevant information on funding possibilities, the guidelines summarizing best practices for assessing Y2K and establishing contingency plans on the national and international levels.

As regional Coordinator for the Central and Eastern European and Central Asian countries, Bulgaria has attached great importance to enhancing cooperation in order to insure a timely and effective response to the challenge and to work together with its neighbours to address the threats the problem could pose.

The regional Y2K cooperation centre has received significant aid and support for national and regional initiatives from the United Nations Development Programme. It promoted increased strategic cooperation and action among Governments, peoples and the private sector to identify and correct potential adverse effects of the year 2000 compliance issue on both society and economy. The regional group undertook several preventive measures to achieve coordination and communication among countries. It established a mechanism for the dissemination of information concerning the problem and created and maintained a comprehensive Web site receiving over 8,900 hits. Three regional conferences and a workshop of national Coordinators hosted by the Bulgarian Government were among the organizational activities of the group. Countries actively participated in the sharing of experience, knowledge, skills, solutions and information on significant events and countermeasures taken to ward off the bug.

Our crisis strategy went through a staged process involving the identification of vulnerable sectors, risk assessment, the remediation of critical systems and software and the development of contingency plans. The group implemented a comprehensive Y2K plan to facilitate decision-making in the event of the crisis. We focused on the following priority areas: energy, telecommunications, nuclear power, banking, finance, oil, gas, shipping and ports and aviation. To handle the complex issues, we concentrated on anticipation, preparation, the prevention of panic, and responsiveness to emerging problems. We supported the use of standardized public status reports and coordinated the preparation efforts with the International Y2K Cooperation Centre.

As a result of the extensive preparedness at both regional and national levels, the region managed a smooth transition to the year 2000, and no major Y2K-related problems have been reported.

The solution of the Y2K problem for the Bulgarian Government means the achievement of pragmatic goals -- protection of the physical integrity of the citizens, protection of crucial components of the social and economic infrastructure and minimizing the potential losses to the lowest possible.

Starting work on the Y2K challenge at the beginning of 1998, we also made intensive efforts to build real public confidence about the measures taken to resolve the problem. There were many messages to citizens within the public information programme. Transparency, open discussion and public right to information are of crucial importance, because they raise the awareness level and prevent panic among the population. The coordination with the private sector was one of the most important measures undertaken by my Government to ensure the successful Y2K transition.

The preparation for the Y2K project, the collaboration and solidarity forged by the common concerns among developed and developing countries, system agencies, international and regional Y2K centres, Governments, business and industry proved to be, as Deputy Secretary-General Louise Fréchette put it, the United Nations in action.

In this regard, one of the most remarkable results is the general awareness reached throughout the United Nations system about the importance of the communications revolution and the need to harness its potential, to meet together its new challenges.

Let me conclude by expressing my sincere hope that we will continue our activities in the same spirit of understanding and constructive cooperation.

The Acting President

We have heard the last speaker in the debate on this item. We will proceed to consider draft resolution A/55/L.28.

The Assembly will now take a decision on draft resolution A/55/L.28. May I take it that the Assembly decides to adopt the draft resolution?

The Acting President

May I take it that it is the wish of the General Assembly to conclude its consideration of agenda item 44?