Y2k Readiness Improving But More Work Needed - Minister

New Zealand's continuing progress towards Y2K readiness has been welcomed by Minister responsible for Y2K Maurice Williamson, although he had some concerns about revised completion dates by some organisations.

He was responding to the release of a Y2K Readiness Commission report on national preparedness of businesses andspecific sectors.

"It's great to see the vast majority of the state sector, public hospitals, local government and large businesses have made good progress, but continuity planning must be improved," said Mr Williamson.

"It's all very well for an organisation to have its own systems working, but if there are problems with its supply chain, it will still have problems."

Another concern was the tendency to defer the estimated dates for completion of Y2K preparations, although all are expecting to be ready by the end of the year.

"But this may be because there's a greater understanding of the full extent of the risks rather than a decline in progress."

Mr Williamson's major concern was that small and medium enterprises were not making satisfactory progress and would need to double their efforts in the remaining months.

"The fact that one in three small firms have not started assessing their risk is a major concern, and one the Readiness Commission is urgently working on. There's still time, but it must immediately become a number one priority," Mr Williamson said.