Circular No. 260/1999/TT-BKHCNMT guiding the implementation of Directive No. 43/1998/CT-TTg dated December 31, 1998 of the Prime Minister on preventing, handling, and mitigating the impact of the "Year 2000 Incident" in fields using information technology.

CIRCULAR

Guidelines for Implementing Directive No. 43/1998/CT-TTg dated December 31, 1998 of the Government Prime Minister on Preventing, Handling, and Mitigating the Impact of the "Year 2000 Problem" in Fields Using Information Technology

Pursuant to Directive No. 43/1998/CT-TTg dated December 31, 1998 of the Government Prime Minister on Preventing, Handling, and Mitigating the Impact of the "Year 2000 Problem" in Fields Using Information Technology

Pursuant to Decision No. 257/1998/QĐ-TTg dated December 31, 1998 of the Government Prime Minister on Establishing the Steering Committee for Mitigating the "Year 2000 Problem" in Fields Using Information Technology

The Steering Committee for Mitigating the "Year 2000 Problem" provides guidelines for preventing, handling, and mitigating the impact of the "Year 2000 Problem" in fields using information technology as follows:

This technical regulation sets out technical requirements, testing methods, sampling procedures; management requirements; responsibilities of organizations and individuals producing, trading, and importing cigarettes.

1. The subjects implementing this Circular are Ministries, agencies under the Government, provinces, centrally-administered cities, State-owned Corporations, large state enterprises, and units using computers or electronic control devices processing date, month, and year data (hereinafter referred to as Units).

2. Heads of Units shall be responsible for the consequences of the "Year 2000 Problem" if it occurs within their scope, field, and authority of management.

3. Costs for mitigating the "Year 2000 Problem" shall be borne by the Units from their regular operating funds, Unit capital sources, and other mobilized funds. In exceptional cases exceeding the authority of the Units, they shall request the Ministry of Finance and the Steering Committee for Mitigating the "Year 2000 Problem" to consider and submit to the Government Prime Minister for approval.

II. IMPLEMENTATION

To date, some Units have established a Steering Committee for Mitigating the Year 2000 Problem or a Task Force for Mitigating the Year 2000 Problem. For Units that have not yet established such organizations, they need to establish a specialized organization for mitigating the "Year 2000 Problem." Specialized organizations for the "Year 2000 Problem" of Units shall be responsible for:

a) Assisting Units in preventive, handling, and mitigation work related to the "Year 2000 Problem" according to professional guidance and procedures of the Steering Committee for Mitigating the Year 2000 Problem established by the Government Prime Minister (hereinafter referred to as the Steering Committee).

b) Regularly reporting on the situation and progress of mitigating the "Year 2000 Problem" to the leadership of the Units for submission to the Steering Committee for consolidation and reporting to the Government.

Depending on local conditions, the establishment of new organizations or assigning existing ones, as well as the name, functions, tasks, and authorities of specialized organizations for mitigating the "Year 2000 Problem" of Units, shall be decided by the Units themselves.

Specialized organizations for mitigating the "Year 2000 Problem" of Units must be established before March 10, 1999, and decisions establishing these organizations must be sent to the Office of the National Program Steering Committee for Information Technology along with contact information including mailing address, telephone, fax, and email (if available).

III. PLAN, CONTENT, AND IMPLEMENTATION SCHEDULE

The plan and requirements for implementation schedule are as follows:

1. Enhance correct understanding of the impact of the "Year 2000 Problem" in Vietnam.

Units shall carry out this from now until September 1999.

2. Organize investigations, determine the extent of impact, and assess potential impacts of the "Year 2000 Problem" on Units.

Units shall complete this before March 15, 1999.

3. Develop prevention, handling, and mitigation plans for the "Year 2000 Problem" of Units.

Units shall complete this before March 25, 1999.

4. Implement prevention, handling, and mitigation measures for the "Year 2000 Problem."

Units shall complete this before the end of October 1999.

5. Develop contingency plans to deal with risks that may arise due to the "Year 2000 Problem" despite preventive measures.

Units shall complete this before November 15, 1999.

Detailed content to be implemented as follows:

1. Enhance correct understanding of the impact of the "Year 2000 Problem" in Vietnam generally and within the Unit specifically. Provide accurate and appropriate information about the impact of the "Year 2000 Problem" to all personnel in the Unit so as not to underestimate or trivialize its effects but also not to overestimate them causing unnecessary worry or panic. In enhancing this awareness, Units can use information provided by the dedicated office of the Steering Committee (website on ITnet: http://www.itnet.gov.vn/y2k, bulletins and other materials from the dedicated office of the Steering Committee, and Unit information).

This activity needs to be carried out continuously from now until the end of September 1999.

2. Organize investigations, determine, and evaluate the potential impact of the "Year 2000 Problem" on the Unit's computer systems and electronic control devices processing date, month, and year data. This investigation should be conducted quickly, thoroughly, accurately, and comprehensively.

The evaluation of potential impact caused by the "Year 2000 Problem" will be based on the following classification table:

- Very serious type which could cause the entire or most of the information technology systems and/or embedded systems [_] of the agency or enterprise to stop functioning, leading to paralysis of normal operations and significant impact on other areas. Industries likely to experience many such incidents are considered critical sectors requiring special priority support to complete the mitigation of the "Year 2000 Problem" within the time frame stipulated by the Government Prime Minister's Directive.

- Serious type which allows equipment to continue operating but produces unacceptable results, significantly affecting the normal operation of the agency or enterprise. Industries likely to encounter such incidents are considered important sectors requiring priority support to complete the mitigation of the "Year 2000 Problem" within the time frame stipulated.

- The average type still allows the equipment to operate but produces inaccurate results with only local impacts or insignificant effects on the overall operation of the agency or enterprise, and has the potential for manual repair to eliminate such impacts. This type of incident needs to be addressed as soon as possible over time but is not strictly limited by time.

- Type with little or no impact. Immediate rectification may not be necessary.

It should be noted that an agency or business will encounter all four types of incidents mentioned above. The inspection, evaluation, and classification of incidents must first be carried out for applications and information technology devices serving these applications and for embedded systems. This work must be conducted seriously in all agencies and businesses according to a clearly defined procedure to ensure that no incident related to the year 2000 is overlooked.

Special attention should be given to very serious incidents that could occur in the following sectors and units:

- Finance: budget management, treasury, tax, insurance, and other financial areas;

- Banking: state-owned banks, joint-stock commercial banks, and other banks;

- Industry: power, electronic control systems and equipment processing date and time in state industries;

- Healthcare: IT equipment and specialized electronic equipment for diagnosis, treatment, and patient monitoring at hospitals and healthcare centers, electronic equipment for medical research;

- Security: IT equipment and specialized equipment in the sector, traffic control systems in cities, towns, and townships under the responsibility of the Ministry of Public Security;

- National Defense: IT systems and specialized systems and equipment in national defense;

- State Management: Government communication information system;

- Postal and Telecommunications: IT systems and electronic control systems in postal and telecommunications;

- Civil Aviation: IT systems and electronic control systems in Vietnam Airlines, airport port clusters, and air traffic control centers;

- Transportation: traffic scheduling and control systems;

- Oil and Gas: IT systems and electronic control systems in exploration, extraction, and transportation of oil and gas;

- Hanoi People's Committee: Computer systems and embedded devices under the management authority of the Hanoi People's Committee;

- Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee: Computer systems and embedded devices under the management authority of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee;

Other Units, when discovering the very serious level of the Year 2000 Incident, must report urgently to the SC2000 Steering Committee to promptly coordinate actions.

Objectives, contents, scope, methods, results to be achieved, and investigation forms are carried out according to the attached appendix to this guidance.

Progress in implementing the above tasks of the Units is as follows:

- Complete investigation, determination, and assessment of the possible impact of SC 2000 before March 15, 1999;

- Compile and send the results of the investigation, determination, and assessment of the possible impact of SC2000 to the SC2000 Steering Committee for a comprehensive report to the Government before March 18, 1999.

3. Develop plans and solutions to prevent, handle, and mitigate the impact of SC2000 for Units: prepare a remediation plan, propose remediation measures, remediation plans (self-execution by agency or enterprise personnel; hiring domestic experts; hiring foreign experts), budget and manpower estimates, determine funding and manpower sources (own capital, domestic loans, foreign loans, in special cases request support from the state budget); establish a remediation implementation schedule based on priority.

- Develop a remediation plan for Ministries, Sectors, Agencies, and Enterprises (establish a timeline for all tasks and stages of the plan; transition and replacement equipment timeline including IT equipment and automatic control equipment, program conversion/replacement; evaluate and select internal and external solutions; assign transition and replacement tasks to groups; assess risks; prepare contingency plans for all systems).

- Identify and prioritize issues to be resolved and mobilize necessary resources (funding sources: own capital, domestic loans, foreign loans, in special cases request support from the state budget; manpower; time). Prioritize funding, manpower, and means for addressing SC2000 impacts on critical and important applications and equipment serving these applications.

- Develop acceptance plans and scenarios (must clearly define timelines) for testing modified systems for Year 2000 compatibility including individual testing, integrated testing, system testing, and acceptance testing.

The progress of the above works is determined as follows:

- March 25, 1999: Units submit remediation plans for SC 2000 to the SC2000 Steering Committee (including budget estimates and balance for plan implementation), also send to the Ministry of Finance for reporting;

- March 28, 1999: The SC2000 Steering Committee completes the national plan and submits it to the Government;

- March 30, 1999: The Ministry of Finance completes the budget adjustment plan for special cases and submits it to the Government for approval;

4. Implement preventive, handling, and remediation measures for the impact of SC 2000. This work must be completed before the end of October 1999.

The purpose of this step is to address the issues caused by SC 2000, which include:

- Converting, replacing, or eliminating identified environments affected by SC 2000 such as: various types of computers and embedded devices, application programs, databases, and computer utility tools that have been found to be non-compliant with the year 2000.

- Modifying the interfaces of computer programs.

Depending on the origin of the aforementioned systems, based on requirements and conditions at each location, the conversion, replacement, and modification will be carried out by:

- Domestic suppliers

- Foreign suppliers

- Suppliers together with experts from each agency

- Experts from each agency.

Each Unit must report monthly to the SC2000 Steering Committee on the results achieved, progress compared to the plan, unresolved difficulties, and support requests for the SC2000 Steering Committee to submit to the Government for timely assistance.

5. Develop contingency plans to respond to potential risks that may arise due to SC2000 despite preventive measures being implemented.

This plan describes the steps to be taken, including temporarily performing tasks manually that were previously automated, to ensure the continuous operation of the most important functions of the agency/company in case of system failure due to SC 2000. This plan will help manage data exchange, handle cases of data loss or damage, identify and ensure necessary information resources for normal operations of the agency/company.

The contingency plan must be completed by November 15, 1999.

IV. NEW PURCHASES

From now on, Units are only allowed to purchase new types of machinery, IT equipment, and software products compatible with the year 2000. In all sales contracts or development projects for products mentioned above, there must be clauses requiring suppliers to commit to ensuring the year 2000 compliance of the product.

In case issues arise during the implementation of Directive No. 43/1998/CT-TTg of the Prime Minister and this guiding circular, Units are advised to contact the SC2000 Steering Committee and relevant departments of the SC2000 Steering Committee./.