STORY:
Airline bosses in China forced to fly New Year's

China has given its airlines the ultimate incentive for the managers of state-run airlines to find solutions for the Year 2000 computer bug -- ordering airline chiefs to personally boar flights next New Year's Day.

"All the heads of the airlines have got to be in the air on January 1, 2000," said the ministry of information industry official charged with handling the massive Year 2000 problem, Zhao Bo. "We have to make sure there are no problems in aviation," he was quoted as saying by London's Financial Times.

Officials at Air China and Shanghai Airlines contacted by Agence France-Press said they were unaware the central government had issued such orders. Fears have been expressed of air disasters at the turn of the century, due to problems with computer software and embedded chips controlling aircraft navigation systems or traffic-control communications.

Fears the millennium bug will hit airlines have forced the rescheduling of a conference in Hong Kong, the South China Morning Post has reported. Organizers of the 13th International Congress of School Effectiveness and Improvement 2000 said paper delegates were afraid of flying to the territory for the Jan. 3 to 7 meeting. The conference is now scheduled to run from Jan. 4 to 7.

According to the International Air Transportation Association (IATA), the world's airlines will spend around $2.3 billion gearing up for the bug.

"The threat of the bug is less than in developed countries because China is less reliant on computers," the South China Morning Post quoted Zhao as saying. "But for banks and other financial companies, it is a problem just as in other countries."

Foreign analysts say lower penetration of computers in Chinese society in no way assures a lesser impact from the bug. The country has more than 10 million computers in operation and untold numbers of embedded chips. The systems the country's power, transport, financial and communications machines depend on incorporate a mishmash of pirated software and outdated hardware more vulnerable to Year 2000, they say.

His ministry has trained more than 5,000 computer engineers to tackle the problem, but even with more on the way some analysts say the efforts could be too little too late. China's State Council, or cabinet, did not start to address the Year 2000 problem until July 1997 and only published a circular ordering an evaluation of the problem in government offices and bodies in July last year.

Financial authorities have announced the country's stockmarkets will close for an extra two weeks during this year's Chinese Lunar New Year holidays to allow for Year 2000 preparation and testing.

Copyright © 1999 Agence France-Press

DATE: 1/18/99

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