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PROGRESS OF Y2K REMEDIATION IN THAILAND

Last update: 15/11/1999

GOVERNMENT ORGANIZATIONS

Thailand has about 250 departments and department-equivalence in 14 ministries. The survey of all work processes in these departments revealed that around 763 systems may have Y2K problem for which the budget of Baht 1,648,729,093 is primarily needed. The Y2K remediation projects were proposed and already approved. The Ministerial Y2K Remediation Committees (Y2K-MRC), established after the 28th April 1998 Cabinet Resolution, are responsible to follow up remediation activities and report the progress to the National Y2K Coordinating Committee (Y2K-NCC), which also established after the cabinet resolution on 23^rd June 1998, and to the Cabinet

NECTEC as a secretariat for the National Y2K Coordinating Committee organized several national seminars since 1998 from creating awareness to command center setup and administration such as

additional five seminars in preparing contingency plans for all the government departments dated on 1, 2, 5, 6 and 8 July 1999. The purpose for this seminar is to ensure that every department can set up an efficient and effective contingency plan, which is operational and can be used in developing the national contingency plan.

a seminar for governors of all provinces titled "Provincial Preparation for the Y2K Problem" on August 26, 1999 so that governors understand the problem, its impact, and the policy guideline to prevent the problem in their provinces.

Two national seminars on set up of Y2K command center and administration of the network for all government organizations and provincial governors.

Assessment of the progress of the Y2K remediation in government organizations is presented in monthly and bi-week reports. It is found that government organizations have achieved different levels of Y2K remediation, from 82% to 100%. Nevertheless, it is found that most government offices do not use complex automatic systems, and their data processing systems are not linked together as a network. Therefore, the remediation and contingency measures can be implemented rather simply and readily. The organizations with large data processing systems; such as, the Department of Revenue and the Office of Population Registration have already solved the Y2K problem and prepared to use the systems which are Y2K ready.

STATE ENTERPRISES

State Enterprises utilize the systems which are critical to the people and the country. Acknowledging the importance of these systems which need special supervision, the National Y2K Coordinating Committee (Y2K-NCC) has established the Supercritical Organization Subcommittee (Y2K-SOS) to supervise and follow up the Y2K remediation of the organizations with systems deemed as being supercritical to the public. There are 31 supercritical organizations in total. Examples of these systems are the public utility systems, finance and banking system, energy, as well as social order systems. These supercritical organizations have begun their Y2K remediation activities even before the Cabinet passed the Y2K resolution.

The problems in the state enterprises are more subtle and complex than those of the government departments. State enterprises' mission is to provide services to the public, so their systems need be very modern and complex. Hence, it is more difficult to implement Y2K solution for these systems than other government departments.

The progress of the Y2K remediation in these organization are showed in detailed appendix, but may be summarized as follows :

The Power and Energy Sector

This group has four member organizations, three for electricity generation and distribution and one petroleum company. These organizations now reported their 100% ready for Y2K including industry-wide and cross industry testing. The contingency plans are also already tested.

The Telecommunication, Communication, and Transportation

This group has completed 100% of the remediation process including testing of contingency plan. The national airline company also worked very closely with ICAO and IATA.

The Finance Banking and Insurance Sector

This group are best perform among the four, especially in the Banking and Security market, which had been tested across industry many times and declared their Y2K readiness since May 1999

The Public Order Sector

This group are quite scattered in mission of the members, as well as contained higher number of the member compared to the others. So the progress are less advance than the other three, anyway, the average progress of the group are still satisfactory.

THE PRIVATE SECTOR

There is a large number of companies in the private sector. The National Y2K Coordinating Committee (Y2K-NCC) though, does not have direct authority to supervise these companies, but has advised the government departments who have control over these companies to follow up and examine their Y2K remediation activities. Departments who supervise these work are the Bank of Thailand, the Securities Exchange of Thailand, Ministry of Industry, Ministry of Commerce etc. Important private companies are divided into different groups as shown below :

* Banking, Finance, and Insurance. Companies in this group have 100% completed their remediation activities and have already tested their interoperation twice as bees said in the previous section.

* Large International Companies. Most of the companies in this group have completed their Y2K remediation according to the deadline scheduled by their head offices. But their activities have not been reported directly to the government.

* The Small and Medium Scale Enterprise (SME). This group is in the process of Y2K remediation and contingency plan as well. The overall picture of there are following up and monitor by their respective government organizations. The Ministry of Industry is now coordinating and assisting these companies to solve the Y2K problem.

CONCLUSION

In summary, the Y2K remediation progress of Thailand in different organizations, especially the supercritical organizations, is satisfactory. However, the implementation needs to be accelerated so that public announcement of the completion can be made.

All supercritical organizations have already prepared contingency plans for the millenium bug. Besides, the committee has ordered each ministry to finish its contingency plan preparation by the end of July 1999. The ministerial contingency plans will be compiled and used in developing the national contingency plan.

The measures to be taken to ensure absolute confidence are prepared as presented below :

Setting up a working group to examine Y2K readiness, to survey and interview the progress of the Y2K remediation in specific departments especially in Y2K-SOS which need special supervision or of which the committee lacks information.
Preparing to establish the National Y2K Command Center as well as country-wide Y2K Command Center to coordinate the implementation of the national contingency plan, to monitor as well as provide correct information to the public, and to coordinate among other ministerial command center.
Distributed the Y2K guidebook for citizen to provide necessary information to the public all over the country to help people for their preparedness for Y2K.
Preparing for the litigation measures and Y2K-specific consumer protection measures which jointly prepare by Ministry of Justice and Office of the Prime Minister.