Countries of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) are moving to ensure that systems are in place to meet the expected wide range of challenges that are associated with the Year 2000 Problem, also known as Y2K or the millennium bug.
In this regard, the CARICOM Secretariat, in conjunction with the Regional Technical Coordinating Committee (RTCC) on the Year 2000 Problem have collaborated to expose personnel from the Community to two weeks of intensive training in preparation for the Year 2000 Challenge.
These activities stem from the initiative of Trinidad and Tobago in placing the Year 2000 Problem on the agenda at the 1998 regular Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community. The Heads of Government then agreed to establish the RTCC, under the chairmanship of Trinidad and Tobago to deal with the Year 2000 Problem. The CARICOM Heads also mandated that the RTCC submit recommendations, including that for a public awareness and education programme. The RTCC made its presentation to the Tenth Inter-Sessional Meeting of CARICOM Heads, 4-5 March 1999 in Suriname.
With funding from the Commonwealth Secretariat and the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB), personnel from the Member States will gather in Trinidad and Tobago for a initial two weeks of training. Following this, the consultants who will conduct the training, will then venture out to every Member State to render assistance with regards toY2K issues such as drawing up national plans, contingency planning, inventory and testing. The two one week training sessions will start form 15 March 1999.
The CARICOM Secretariat and RTCC were successful in getting the Commonwealth Secretariat to source four consultants from the Malta Information Technology and Training Services (MITTS) and an additional four consultants were sourced by the CDB, two each from within the Region and two from the University of Miami.
All of the consultants have been involved with Y2K projects and those from Malta, form the core team for national Y2K preparedness in their country.
The training will cover a range of Y2K related issues with the broad issues being: understanding the problem and its implications on the national economy; strategies managing the risks of the
Year 2000 Programme; Year 2000 status of preparedness of Member States; the role of government and private sector; managing the problem; tackling the problem; contingency planning methodology, the need for contingency plans and a public awareness and education programme.
This training and country visits come at a time when the Region is moving swiftly to ensure that there is little fall out as result of Y2K. Additionally, the two exercises are follow up activities to the inaugural meeting of the RTCC in Trinidad and Tobago last December.
It is envisaged that the training as well as the country visits will expose representatives from Member States to sufficiently offer guidance in ensuring, at least that mission critical systems are ready and that contingency plans are in place to reduce any possible fall out as a result of the Year 2000 Problem.
