DEPUTY SECRETARY-GENERAL STRESSES NEED TO BUILD REAL PUBLIC CONFIDENCE ABOUT ACTIONS TO CONFRONT Y2K ISSUE

22 June 1999

Press Release
DSG/SM/61
PI/1150

DEPUTY SECRETARY-GENERAL STRESSES NEED TO BUILD REAL PUBLIC CONFIDENCE ABOUT ACTIONS TO CONFRONT Y2K ISSUE

19990622 Louise Fréchette, in Meeting of Y2K Coordinators, Praises Ahmad Kamal Of Pakistan as 'Truly Remarkable Chairman' of Working Group on Informatics

Following is the text of closing remarks by Deputy Secretary-General Louise Fréchette to the Working Group on Informatics, in New York today:

It is a pleasure to see you all here today, continuing the very fruitful discussions you had last December on how best to meet the challenge of Y2K.

The millennium bug threatens to disrupt finance, trade, shipping, telecommunications, air traffic control and other vital public services such as electricity and natural disaster preparedness. It casts a shadow over issues of peace and security, because of the possible effects on computers designed to run missile systems and protect national assets.

Fear of Y2K is also a problem. It would be ironic indeed if efforts to deal with Y2K were largely successful, and if Y2K turned out to be something of a non-event, only to find that fear had held sway during the transition and caused a secondary crisis characterized by financial panics, mass hoarding of goods and gasoline and the like.

Efforts to raise public awareness about Y2K have helped the issue take its place on the national and international agenda. But public awareness about the problem is not enough. There is also a need to build real public confidence about the actions that have been taken, and will be taken, to ward off the bug and guide us through the millennial fever.

I have no doubt that this Working Group is up to the task. The International Y2K Cooperation Centre was created with remarkable speed following the meeting last December. The number of countries with a Y2K plan and a national coordinator has risen. New coalitions are being forged among business, industry, governments and international organizations. Developed and developing countries have found their concerns striking common chords. Such solidarity and problem-solving shows the United Nations in action.

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Of course, the efforts of the Working Group on Informatics go well beyond the Y2K problem. The Group has improved access by the Permanent Missions to computers; it has forged innovative partnerships with all available expertise, including the private sector and academia; and it has facilitated the efforts of the Secretariat and wider United Nations family to create an electronic organization.

Such initiatives and achievements are a team effort, of course, but one individual stands out: Ambassador Ahmad Kamal, who for the past four years has been a truly remarkable Chairman of this Working Group.

Over that time, he helped all of us harness the Internet, e-mail and other new communications technologies to our global mission of peace, development and human rights.

He helped to transform diplomacy, making it possible for permanent missions, the private sector and civil society to participate in our work more deeply and more dynamically.

And he led the way in international efforts to prepare for Y2K and a transition that, thanks to his efforts, now stands a better chance of averting a disaster.

In short, over the past four years, the tide of technological change met the tidal force that is Ambassador Kamal. Though his curriculum vitae lists informatics as a mere hobby, his efforts turned into something of a crusade. The net result is a range of improvements in how the United Nations carries out its essential task of serving the world's people.

For these contributions Ambassador Kamal merits our recognition and best wishes as he leaves both the chairmanship of this committee and his distinguished service as Permanent Representative of Pakistan. I am pleased to note that he will still be an active part of the United Nations community.

As Ambassador Kamal pointed out in his statement, the communications revolution will continue to bring us challenges, fast and furious.

We must all continue to take advantage of what the new technologies have to offer -- for diplomacy and development, for advocacy and education. We must all pursue a vision of a new century in which all people are empowered, and in which there are not information technology "haves" and information technology "have-nots". In pursuing this broad agenda, it is my sincere hope that we can continue to work in the same spirit of understanding and constructive cooperation that has brought us this far.

Important responsibilities await the incoming chairman of this Working Group, Percy Mangoaela, the distinguished Permanent Representative of Lesotho. The Secretariat will give him its full support and we wish him all the best for success.

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