By Martyn Williams, Newsbytes.

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) on Wednesday issued further guidance to the special administrative region's (SAR's) financial institutions designed to guard against problems related to the Y2K problem.

The authority said that a full backup, usually conducted nightly at most institutions anyway, should be enough to cope with any Y2K problem but warned that an additional step to safeguard customer data should be taken given the importance of the issue for public confidence.

The HKMA advised that financial institutions additionally copied customer data so some additional medium that could not be hit by Y2K problems, such as microfiche, paper hard copy of CD-ROM disc.

Hong Kong has declared December 31 a public holiday so financial institutions will be closed on the day making such additional back-up steps easier to carry out.

"The purpose of the guidance is to describe the steps that authorized institutions should take to ensure that records of customer balances and other data are protected against any Year 2000-related problems that might emerge," said Mr David Carse, deputy chief executive of the HKMA.

"Given Hong Kong's high state of preparedness, which is internationally recognized, we do not expect any loss of customer data due to the Year 2000 problem. However, because of the importance of this issue, it is sensible to take extra precautions."

-- Mild Mannered Reporter (Clark@super.duper), August 20, 1999

Answers

HONG KONG???? Gawd, who cares?

-- King of Spain (madrid@aol.com), August 20, 1999.

KoS, the PRC cares--a lot. But I hope our backup is real good, too!

-- Mara Wayne (MaraWAyne@aol.com), August 21, 1999.

>> HONG KONG???? Gawd, who cares? <<

Part of "getting it" is the recognition of dependencies that stretch far beyond your immediate vicinity, out into the world. You may not feel the need to keep up with every far-flung place. You don't really have to, if you don't want.

But, if you genuinely don't care, why heave in a snide remark? Isn't that considered one of the traits that is so irksome about people like Y2KPro?

In case I misread your tone and this really was a request for information:

FYI, who cares are the people who control the financial markets. Hong Kong is the gateway for most of the goods flowing out of China. It is a major player in global trade. I can assure you that the board of directors at WalMart, Alan Greenspan, commodities traders and an assortment of other movers and shakers care very much about Hong Kong. Maybe even GAWD does, too.

-- Brian McLaughlin (brianm@ims.com), August 21, 1999.