93% ARE AWARE OF THE MILLENNIUM BUG

New Zealand's small to medium businesses have a high awareness of the possible threats posed by the millennium bug, announced Minister for Information Technology, Hon Maurice Williamson, today.

The Minister has today released the findings from a survey conducted by the Ministry of Commerce of nearly five hundred small to medium sized New Zealand businesses.

"We deliberately targeted the survey at this group because of the conclusive evidence, that big business understands full well the repercussions of not taking the Y2K problem seriously.

"The survey has revealed that 93% of the respondents are aware of the millennium bug, 78% are confident they will have addressed the problem by the year 2000 but only 58% are currently working to address the problem.

"The incentive for businesses to act now on the Y2K problem, is the desire to stay in business. Delaying action against the problem will only increase the costs to fix it.

"Awareness of this issue will continue to be raised by groups such as the Y2K committee and if people want to stay in business they will have to take some action," the Minister said.

The detailed survey figures are available on the Internet at www.moc.govt.nz/comms/it/it.html