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Journalism of Courage
SINGAPORE, Sept 9: Asia emerged unscathed from a computer bug some feared would strike older systems on 9/9/99, according to reports from around the region today.
Government bodies, companies and markets in Australia, Japan, China, India, South Korea and other countries were all functioning glitch-free today with the four nines8217; business day drawing to a close for most of the region.
Concerns over September 9, 1999 arose from an old programming convention that used four nines in a row 8212; 9999 8212; to tell computers to stop processing data or to perform a special task.
It was thought to be a precursor to the Y2K or millennium bug, which could strike on January 1, 2000. Early computer programmes abbreviated years to two digits, and the year 2000 may be misread as 1900 by older systems, resulting in shutdowns or miscalculated data.
Countries first to see the dawning of September 9 8212; New Zealand and Australia 8212; provided an early indication the four 9s8217; was proving a non-event.
As the Indian subcontinent arose to its business day, no problems were reported.
There could be isolated events of systems getting affected, but we have not heard of anything yet,8217; said Narasimhaiah Seshagiri, the director-general of the National Informatics Centre NIC and a member of the Government8217;s Y2K action force.
Bangladesh8217;s central bank said it had turned off its computer network as a precaution, but would likely start it back up since commercial banks in the country appeared to have no problems.
Checks early today with Australia8217;s federal and state bodies revealed no computer foul-ups, said Susan Page, chief general manager for the federal Government8217;s year 2000 project office. Major banks and telecommunications firms in Australia also found it was business as usual.
New Zealand, along with several other countries in the region, used the advent of 9/9/99 as a warm-up for the new year.
A number of utilities and organisations took the opportunity of 9/9/99 to test aspects of their processes for managing Y2K,8217; said Basil Logan, chairman of the Y2K readiness commission.
Hong Kong airport authorities treated the event as a pre-millennium exercise by holding drills, while the territory8217;s marine department enforced Y2K requirements for vessels entering Hong Kong waters between 2000 local time yesterday and 2000 local time today.
A Hong Kong Government official said no reports of incidents had been received. Japan, a country cited by some experts as lagging in Y2K preparations, also found smooth sailing even though its markets got a dose of pre-9999 jitters yesterday.
The Bank of Japan had to pump some 300 billion yen 2.7 billion worth of treasury bills into the system yesterday amid reports some foreign banks were rushing to get more cash before September 9.
Fears of possible computer glitches also contributed to a weaker finish in Simex Nikkei futures in Singapore yesterday.
But today, the Tokyo Stock Exchange said its systems were operating normally. A switch of bond futures programmes to the September 9 date late yesterday had also proceeded glitch-free, an official said.
China, which has been judged as among the least well-prepared countries for Y2K, reported no problems. The Shanghai Stock Exchange said operations were normal as did Shanghai Airlines and major financial firms.
