Morocco well ahead in fight to avert Y2K computer bug

Morocco is well ahead in the efforts to avoid the side effects of the computer systems' breakdown that threatens the world's computers when the year flips over from 1999 to 2000.

Moroccan and American computer experts, who met Thursday in Rabat to debate the "millennium bug" noted that some major firms in Morocco, especially the state-owned phosphates corporation (OCP) almost finished their strategy to counter the bug.

The experts noted that the situation in Morocco is not as complex as in other developed countries in view of the low level of automation in the North African country.

The Moroccan specialists underlined the importance of fostering the awareness of the concerned firms and companies on the need to take steps to avert the effects of the bug.

Morocco set up last September a national committee to ponder on means to avoid the adverse impacts of the computer bug. The committee is focusing attention on national institutions, important firms and a sample of small and medium enterprises.

January 1st, 2000 risks to be a dark Saturday, as the world will wake up on a computer apocalypse that will spare no sector of activity except in the countries that would have levelled up their artificial intelligence.

Millions of computers -some of which are central to running financial markets, air-traffic control systems and even elevators in office buildings- do not distinguish between the year 1900 and the year 2000 because an old programming practice expressed years in two digits.

As the year 2000 gets closer, this "bug" is attracting high-level attention in both government offices and corporate boardrooms around the world.