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Asia breathes sigh of relief as millennium bug fails to bite

HONG KONG: 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 Ñ and computer systems Ñ kick back into full gear.

The country's first commercial flight of the New Year took off from Beijing at 7:32 a.m. (2322 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.

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 officials, 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.

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.ÑAFP