Year 2000

inSight

16 Sep 1999

Year 2000

Joseph Yam on Year 2000

The ninth of September has, to me, always been a high risk day. Every year that day reminds me that I am yet another year older. This often raises disturbing thoughts about how I have muddled through life, and how events, official or personal, memorable or regrettable, would have played out had I done things differently. It is a day that often causes me to feel sadly nostalgic rather than enthusiastically forward-looking - very much in contrast to my normal self during the rest of the year. Therein lies the high risk, for all these emotions leave me with less concentration to deal properly with the monetary affairs of the day. Fortunately it only lasts for one day, and then life goes on as usual, with all the excitement that Hong Kong never fails to offer, even for one in public office.

I hope readers will pardon me for the personal rumbling on this occasion. I feel I have to take the opportunity to thank members of the financial press for their very thoughtful birthday card and the not too thoughtful gift full of calories. The card advised me not to think of it as getting older and to just think of it as going on ahead to check things out for the rest of them. I shall certainly try my best. But this was not quite the best birthday present I got on the occasion. The best had to be the series of Year 2000 reports I received from the HKMA's Event Management Centre telling me that all was well with the banks in Hong Kong and that no problems had been reported immediately leading up to and throughout the high risk day of 9 September.

The Event Management Centre at our offices in Central was working around the clock during the '9999' critical period. Our monitoring systems went very smoothly, and the whole exercise was a good experience. Staff members from all over the HKMA were involved in the Centre. I was very impressed by the energy and team spirit of the staff. They worked long and unsocial hours. But in return for the loss of sleep, I suspect that a few of them gained quite a bit of weight from the non-stop eating going on at the Centre - no doubt to sustain all the hard brainwork. We shall have a similar operation during the millennium changeover. We shall all need to make sure we bring in plentiful supplies of snacks in preparation for that event because the Centre will be open for a longer period during a cooler season.

Outside our Event Management Centre, the general public seemed to be more interested in the new racing season than in any possibility that there might be problems on 9 September. I am particularly sympathetic towards the man caught by the TV cameras drawing out money from an ATM machine late at night on 8 September because he had lost more than expected at the races. I suffered the same fate that night. This, rather than any worries about 9 September, was probably the main explanation for the busy late-night traffic at a few ATM points. It is one illustration of the sense of proportion that people in Hong Kong have at times like this. I have no doubt that this will be very much the case with all the festivities planned for the millennium.

The media deserve particular praise for the exemplary way in which they handled the rollover to 9 September. Apart from the natural apprehensions about this date, there were a few wild rumours going round, but they did not get past the traditional scepticism of journalists, who checked them out in their usual meticulous way and found them to be groundless. At a time when the standards of journalism in Hong Kong are a hot topic, this professionalism does great credit to Hong Kong's media.

 

Joseph Yam
16 September 1999

 

More information on the Year 2000 problem can be found on the following pages:

Year 2000

Click here for previous articles in this column

 
Latest inSight
Last revision date : 16 September 1999