Taiwan speeds up effort to fight millennium bug

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05:45 a.m. Aug 17, 1998 Eastern

TAIPEI, Aug 17 (Reuters) - Taiwan, concerned about the impact of the millennium bug, invited industrial leaders on Monday to discuss ways to prevent paralysis of data systems.

``We have invited chief executives of major industries to a breakfast meeting on August 28 to discuss the millennium issue,'' a spokesman for the Industrial Development Bureau said by telephone.

The official said preliminary investigation showed that most large firms have either completed or were about to complete reprogramming of their computer systems.

But half of the island's one million small and medium companies have yet to take any action.

``This is something we are concerned about,'' the official said.

The millennium bug, or Y2K as it is also known, threatens a huge global base of older computers that read only the last two digits of a year and so cannot distinguish 2000 from 1900.

Experts warn that computers could malfunction and affect numerous sectors, including the world's financial systems and computer-run transport networks.

The official said the government would continue to educate firms and the public about the importance of 2000 compliance and would offer preferential loans to the needy to encourage them to be prepared for the ``bug.''

Companies would be able to deduct between 15 and 20 percent of their business taxes in millennium bug research and development.

Recent surveys have shown that the government needs to change 280,000 computer programmes within their operating system, while the private sector needs to change over 1.2 million programmes.

It has set deadlines for various government branches to complete their reprogramming, and offered financial aid to private-sector companies to finish their contingency measures.

Finance and economic authorities are required to complete reprogramming by the end of 1998 and complete tests of the reprogrammed systems in June 1999.

Taiwan's stock exchange and the foreign exchange centres both said there would be no problem for them to comply by the end of 1998, while most financial institutions said they would be ready at year-end.

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