Legislative Council Panel on Manpower
Meeting on 22 April 1999

Progress of Year 2000 compliance exercise in
Government departments, Government-funded and
Government-regulated organisations
responsible for labour and manpower matters

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to inform Members of the progress of the Year 2000 (Y2K) compliance exercise in the Education and Manpower Bureau (EMB) and the following departments and agencies - responsible for labour and manpower matters - under its purview :

Labour Department
Vocational Training Council
Clothing Industry Training Authority
Construction Industry Training Authority
Employees Retraining Board
Occupational Safety and Health Council.

Background

2. To tackle the Y2K problem that will affect the operation of computer and embedded systems at the turn of the century, the various offices have each conducted comprehensive surveys to identify systems that need to be rectified and drawn up rectification programmes.

Present Position

3. As at 15 March 1999, 85% of all mission-critical¹ computer and embedded systems were confirmed to be compliant or had been rectified. The remaining 15 % are currently undergoing rectification work, and is expected to be completed by end June 1999.

4. A breakdown of the Y2K compliance positions of individual offices are set out at the Annex.

Education and Manpower Bureau
April 1999

Annex

Y2K Compliance Positions of the mission-critical computer and embedded systems of the Education and Manpower Bureau and the departments and agencies (responsible for labour and manpower matters) under its purview
(as at 15 March 1999)

Office	No. of compliant systems	No. of non-compliant systems		Compliance status being verified	Total
		Rectification in progress	Reset clock
Education and Manpower Bureau	0 (0%)	0 (0%)	0 (0%)	0 (0%)	0note 1
Labour Department	8 (80%)	2 (20%)	0 (0%)	0 (0%)	10note 2
Vocational Training Council	5 (71%)	2 (29%)	0 (0%)	0 (0%)	7
Clothing Industry Training Authority	0 (0%)	0 (0%)	0 (0%)	0 (0%)	0
Construction Industry Training Authority	6 (86%)	1 (14%)	0 (0%)	0 (0%)	7
Employees Retraining Board	6 (100%)	0 (0%)	0 (0%)	0 (0%)	6
Occupational Safety and Health Council	4 (100%)	0 (0%)	0 (0%)	0 (0%)	4
Total:	29 (85 %)	5 (15%)	0 (0%)	0 (0%)	34

1. Mission-critical systems are those computer and embedded systems whose proper functioning is related to public health and safety, the provision of crucial services to the public, or payment and revenue collection.


note 1 In a paper entitled "Progress of Year 2000 Compliance Work within Government" submitted by the Information Technology and Broadcasting Bureau to the LegCo Information Technology and Broadcasting Panel in March 1999, it was reported that, as at 15 January 1999, the Education and Manpower Bureau (EMB) possessed one mission-critical system which was Y2K compliant. That system was the burglar alarm system of the old office of the Quality Education Fund (QEF) Secretariat. As the QEF Secretariat had moved its office and the burglar alarm system was no longer in use, EMB does not possess any mission-critical system.


note 2 In the same paper referred to in Note 1, it had been reported that, as at 15 January 1999, the Labour Department had a total of 9 mission-critical systems of which 6 were Y2K compliant. In February 1999, the Labour Department had further acquired an automatic calls distribution system in its Telephone Employment Service Centre and Job Vacancy Processing Centre, thus increasing the total number of systems from 9 to 10. This new system is mission-critical which is Y2K compliant by design and no rectification work is needed.