Avoiding Y2K bug effects is everybody's responsibility

A Moroccan official said averting the effects of the Y2k bug is everybody's responsibility.

Government administrations, private firms and all concerned actors should join efforts to ensure a safe shift to the next century, Larbi Ajjoul, secretary of state in charge of posts and information technologies, told a meeting of economic operators.

The Agadir meeting is part of a series of seminars that the Moroccan government holds part of a national plan to foster awareness as to the need to counter the effects of the millennium bug on the Moroccan economy.

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, major 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 leveled 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.