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Saturday, January 1 3:30 PM SGT
Asia breathes sigh of relief as millennium bug fails to biteHONG KONG, Jan 1 (AFP) -Asia, the part of the world where it was feared the millennium bug could wreak most havoc, appeared to have emerged largely unscathed on Saturday. Flights, bank systems, power plants and other utilities thought to be vulnerable to computer glitches as a result of the switch to the year 2000 were generally reported to be operating without any major problems. Follows is a roundup of the situation in leading Asian capitals: BANGKOK: The government's Y2K control centre says "no problems reported." Thai Airways International dispatched its first flights of the century a few moments after midnight to Osaka and Tokyo. Only 20 percent of available seats filled. Thailand's Stock Exchange, which was holding a full day's simulation of trading, and the country's banks reported no problems. Cash machines in central Bangkok operating normally. BEIJING: Aside from a "handful" of taxi meters failing, China saw no bug-induced disruption. Experts said the moment of truth may not arrive until after the holiday break, when the bulk of businesses -- and computer systems -- kick back into full gear. The country's first commercial flight of the New Year took off from Beijing at 7:32 a.m. (2332 GMT) and arrived in Shanghai without a hitch, a China Eastern Airlines spokesman told AFP. On board was company president Li Zhongming and other executives. The Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) ordered an eight-hour hiatus on departures after midnight as a precaution. Employees at both of China's nuclear power stations in operation told AFP there had been no unexpected occurrences. Beijing has not provided a total estimate of the Y2K preparation costs, but the central bank spent 1.2 billion dollars to test and fix computers in the financial system, while the CAAC said the aviation sector spent 60.2 million dollars. HANOI: "There have been no incidents related to Y2K until now," Chu Hao, chairman of the Y2K steering committee told AFP. But he noted that during the next few days there was a risk of problems arising in sectors where systems have not been tested because of the holiday period. HONG KONG: A government spokeswoman said not one single bug incident had been reported. Sectors considered the most vulnerable to the computer glitch, namely power, telecommunications, broadcasting, aviation and transport, and finance, have successfully completed post-New Year's checks of their systems, she said. Chief Secretary for Administration Anson Chan warned the "real test" would come Monday, the first working day of the new millennium here. KUALA LUMPUR: The National Y2K Operation Centre reported no problems after months of anxiety and the spending of 1.85 billion ringgit (487 million dollars) in various sectors. An official at the centre said all critical sectors had reported they were free of the Y2K bug. All automated teller machines and credit card systems operated smoothly. Operations at Kuala Lumpur International Airport were untroubled, with the first flight of the year landing safely minutes past midnight. MANILA: The bug caused no problems, a government monitoring task force said. No disruption was reported to utilities, transport and communications systems that could be traced to the Y2K problem. There was a power cut in a suburb of Manila on Saturday morning but this was traced to a transformer problem and electrical service was soon restored. SEOUL: The government crisis centre reports no problems with defence systems or in other vulnerable sectors. Captain Lee Sung-Jai, the defense ministry's Y2K official, said: "After the passage into the new year, we checked all the systems, including missiles and jets, but could not find any problems." Officials cautioned that problems could yet emerge. Problems at banks may not become apparent until they resume business on January 3, they said. SINGAPORE: Singapore reported no problems and the stock exchange successfully simulated trading. But the bill for Y2K compliance was estimated at more one billion Singapore dollars (602 million US). The figure was an estimate by the local Straits Times newspaper based on calculations by industry experts and did not include the enormous manpower resources pooled by the government to keep the bug at bay. More than 50,000 people worked through the night monitoring critical operations. "IT (information technology) systems here are pretty new, so I believe most of the costs came from manpower needed to rectify and test systems as well as setting up contingency plans," said Alex Siow, President of the Singapore Computer Society. The total cost of making systems Y2K compatible in Singapore might have been up to three billion dollars. SYDNEY: The only reported mishap related to mobile bus ticket validation machines in South Australia and Tasmania. "They were quickly fixed and put back in operation within a couple of hours," Ian Campbell, the government's bug coordinator, said. Electricity services and broadcasters reported no problems while major telecommunications carriers experienced only the usual New Year congestion. More than 50 banks and building societies advised the Reserve Bank of Australia of a smooth transition to the new date. The Stock Exchange said its trading system had survived. Air Services Australia said rollover in aviations sector was smooth. Fears surrounding the bug were evident with the government's special Y2K website recording more than five million hits in the 12 hours after midnight -- exeeding the record number of visits to the Atlanta Olympics website. Australia spent more than 12 billion dollars (7.8 billion US) on anti-bug preparations. TOKYO: Computer-related faults struck two nuclear power plants in Japan seconds into the year 2000 Saturday but officials said one of them was not a millennium bug problem. At a plant in Ishikawa, central Japan, a system that monitors radiation levels malfunctioned. An alarm sounded for 10 minutes at another nuclear plant in Onagawa, northern Japan, just two minutes after midnight, indicating a problem with a gauge to measure sea water problems. Minor computer hiccups were reported across the country in the morning, including false displays of dates in computers at central and local government offices and faulty services of train ticket vending machines. Ticket vending machines at 22 stations of East Japan Railway Co. broke down or showed false data. The problems were quickly solved. Two million state and corporate officials were on guard around the country and many people had followed government advice to stock up with three days' worth of food and water just in case. YANGON: A government spokesman said there had been no disruption from the millennium computer bug. Computers have not penetrated deep into Myanmar society -- many government offices and businesses operate on age-old principles of paper pushing administration. |