September 20, 1999 Web posted at: 3:45 p.m. EDT (1945 GMT) by Clare Haney

From...

HONG KONG (IDG) -- China's air traffic control body, the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC), expects to complete its year 2000 work next month.

The organization then plans to carry out a special year 2000 air traffic control exercise in North-East China, according to a CAAC director.

CAAC has precisely adhered to the International Civil Aviation Organization's (ICAO's) recommendations on resolving year 2000 issues, said Lu Xiaoping, a division director at CAAC's Air Traffic Management Bureau (ATMB), in a faxed response to IDG News Service.

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The Chinese body first embarked on its year 2000 task in April of last year in accordance with special requirements issued by China's State Council, he added.

"Till now, the awareness and assessment work has been finished and most facilities/systems have been renovated to be Y2K compliant," Lu said. "What we are doing now is to renovate some facilities/systems and to organize Y2K readiness certification for those facilities/systems ... renovated as scheduled before."

The year 2000 computer problem mostly affects older software programs, which use a two-digit date field instead of a four-digit field. Such programs could misread 2000 as 1900 or fail to understand the date at all causing critical computer systems to fail.

From April to November last year, the organization assessed the year 2000 readiness of its communication, radar, navigation, meteorological and aeronautical information service systems, completing the bulk of necessary system renovation tasks by August of this year, he said.

The time period from November 1998 up until next month is when CAAC will have carried out year 2000 renovation, certification and contingency planning, Lu added. The body is also preparing further work on air traffic controller training, contingency exercises and possible revisions of its China Y2K Contingency Plan For Air Traffic Management, he said.

This month, CAAC has been carrying out year 2000 readiness certification for its all-important ATS (air traffic systems) as requested by China's Ministry of Information Industry (MII) in its Y2K Readiness Certification Standard, Lu said.

Reports surfaced last week suggesting that the U.S. State Department in a travel advisory was naming China along with Italy, Japan and Russia as countries where air traffic control systems may experience year 2000-related problems. However, at the last minute, the U.S. department decided not to name any specific countries.

Lu's faxed responses referred to the initial reports suggesting that China's air traffic control systems would be on the U.S. State Department's year 2000 hit list.

"I feel very sorry that the U.S. department advises potential disruption may occur in China because of the lack of Y2K readiness," he said. "I do not know if the U.S. department really knows the obvious progress China Civil Aviation Administration has achieved in solving its Y2K bug."

A high-ranking Chinese official admitted just over a year ago that the country is behind in counteracting the year 2000 issue. Zhang Qi , director general of MII's department of electronics and IT products, said that the country lags most of the developed world by 9 to 12 months in its year 2000 efforts.

As a matter of national pride, the Chinese government has reportedly ordered its top ranking airline executives to be in the air on Jan. 1, 2000, according to published reports circulating at the start of this year. CAAC's Lu was unable to confirm the reports.

Clare Haney is Hong Kong bureau chief for the IDG News Service.