Moroccan government conducts investigation on Y2K

The Moroccan secretariat of state in charge of posts and information technologies is currently conducting a nationwide investigation in a bid to avoid the side effects of the computer system breakdown that threatens the world's computers when the year flips over from 1999 to 2000.

The secretariat said that more than 1,800 questionnaires were sent to institutions from different sectors of economic activity, including financial organizations, public and private enterprises, industries and administrations.

The investigation is meant to help make a rapid assessment of the concerned institutions' readiness to face the expected "millennium bug."

Morocco set up last September a national committee to consider means of avoiding the adverse impact of the shift to year 2000. The committee is focusing attention on national institutions, major firms and a sample of small and medium enterprises.

January 1, 2000 risks being a dark Saturday, as the world will wake up to a computer apocalypse that will spare no sector of activity except in countries that have adapted 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.