Australia: Countdown on bug

By Greg Ansley

CANBERRA - Australian companies are still racing to beat the millenium bug, with fewer than one in 10 ready to cope with electronic chaos as clocks tick into the year 2000.

A survey by the National Australia Bank has found that 87 per cent of businesses are affected by theY2K problem, ranging across all sectors and company sizes.

For finance, property, personal and recreational services the figure rises above 90 per cent.

The survey found that while only 3 per cent had still to develop a Y2K action plan, just 8 per cent claimed to be fully compliant now.

However, 89 per cent of affected firms said they were making satisfactory progress, with only the construction and retailing sectors lagging behind.

The survey said 14 per cent of food retailers and 11 per cent of construction companies had yet to develop any action plan at all.

The most fully compliant sector was manufacturing, where more than 10 per cent of companies were prepared for the bug, rising to 15 per cent for metal product manufacturing.

Only 3 per cent of financial companies and motor vehicle retailing were fully compliant.