No APEC economy can isolate itself from the potential impacts that Y2K may have on other economies in the region. Even if sytems in one economy are Year 2000 compliant, operations could be disrupted by the non-compliance of ...
Singapore, 22 April 1999 | For Immediate Release
No APEC economy can isolate itself from the potential impacts that Y2K may have on other economies in the region. Even if sytems in one economy are Year 2000 compliant, operations could be disrupted by the non-compliance of infrastructure systems in other partners or service providers, whether at home or abroad. It is therefore imperative that APEC economies work together to ascertain levels of preparedness, undertake action to meet any identified deficiencies, and develop contingency plans to ensure that crossborder impacts, for both private and public sectors, are minimized. With this in mind, the last APEC Senior Officials' Meeting held at Wellington, New Zealand on 7 - 9 Feb 1999, decided that the APEC Y2K Symposium to be co-organized by Canada, Japan and Singapore and assisted by the APEC Secretariat would be held in Singapore from 22 to 23 April 1999.
The two day Y2K symposium is a centerpiece of APEC's Y2K week. The symposium provided another opportunity for APEC to demostrate how it is well-suited to deal with region-wide economic problems in practical ways.
The symposium will focus on the trans-border impact of Y2K in key sectors such as telecommunications, financial services, customs, transportation and energy, with particular attention to the interdependencies among member economies. It will also examine Y2K problems unique to SMEs.
The two days symposium is expected to be attended by more than 300 participants from 21 member economies, mostly from the public sector would also be attending.
Some prominent experts in the field of Y2K will speak or act as panelists at the symposium. Mr John Koskinen, US President's Council on year 2000 conversion will have a videoconferencing session on trans-border impacts of Y2K in critical economic infrastructure with an emphasis on contingency planning. Mr Takeo Shiina, Chairman of the Y2K Advisors' Conference of Japan will deliver a keynote address on the Y2K issue in the Asia-Pacific Region. Other experts invited to speak at the symposium include those from ITU, IEA, WCO, IATA, APIA and ICS. Speakers from Canada, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Mexico, Australia, Hong Kong, China, Thailand, Chinese Taipei, United States, Malaysia and Philippines will be the luncheon speaker on 23 April 1999. he would share the outcomes of the Y2K conference held in Manila in march 1999 and also his views on what he would like to see the APEC Y2K Symposium to achieve.
The symposium is expected to provide substantive and direct benefits through the exchange of information on the scope and nature of the Y2K problems to the participants in particular and to the economies in general. The outcomes of the symposium will be reported to the Ministers and Leaders.
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