HONG KONG banks and financial institutions are still undecided about whether they should close on the days before and after January 1, 2000, despite advice it would make millennium bug problems easier to deal with. Although countries like Britain and Australia are seriously considering the idea to insulate themselves against the millennium bug, it has not been discussed in detail by local financial industry representatives. Hong Kong Monetary Authority executive director Raymond Li Ling-cheung said: 'We don't have such a plan yet, though we may look at it next year when we start looking at contingency plans.' But Hong Kong Stockbroker's Association chairman Dannis Lee Jor-hung said: 'This is not the best way to prevent the Y2K failure.' The Y2K bug was inadvertently created by programmers who wrote software encoding years in two digits. Consequently, '00' could be read by a computer as 1900 instead of 2000. Some experts said Asian and Pacific nations were more vulnerable to the millennium bug becauseclocks would turn to January 1, 2000, before North America and Europe. They warned financial institutions to shut down around the turn of the millennium in order to monitor and fix their computer systems. The Government of the Australian state of New South Wales was considering making Friday, December 31, 1999, a holiday to give businesses breathing space for final Y2K checks. 'I don't think that would make a difference,' Mr Li said. 'It is a world problem.' Members of the Year 2000 Government Steering Committee, which includes representatives of the SAR's major financial bodies, said the idea was considered briefly. 'It was casually mentioned earlier this year,' said Securities and Futures Commission director of market supervision Keith Lui. 'We didn't see the benefit of delaying one day.' Most SAR banks are reportedly on schedule to fix potential Y2K problems by the end of this year. But only half of Hong Kong's listed companies have told the Stock Exchange how they plan to handle the problem. The British Government is considering a four-day weekend from December 31 to Monday, January 3, 2000. In the US, banks and stock exchanges will remain open on December 31. However, the Government plans to increase cash reserves by US$50 billion (HK$387 billion) to help banks cope with expected heavy withdrawals.
