THE PHILIPPINES will host the Second Global Year 2000 Summit on March 1-3 at the Philippine International Convention Center. The event is being organized by the Philippine Presidential Commission on Year 2000 Compliance, the Y2K Foundation Inc., the International Chamber of Commerce and the World Information Technology and Services Alliance.

The first Y2K summit was held Oct. 15 last year in London, England. Y2K Commission chair Dr. Amable Aguiluz said that, like the first summit, the one which will be held in the Philippines will be self-sustaining.

"Not a single centavo will come from the coffers of the government," Aguiluz said.

To achieve this, attendees will be required to pay fees starting from P3,000 for local registrants and $200 for foreign delegates.

Expected to attend the event is John Koskinen, chair of the United States President's Council on Year 2000 Conversion. Aguiluz and Koskinen formed part of the steering committee responsible for helping organize the first Y2K chairs' forum held Dec. 11 in New York.

One of the major issues to be discussed at the summit is contingency planing. Many companies in many countries are not expected to beat the millennium bug deadline, therefore they should instead resort to contingency plans in anticipation of the potential damage the bug can create on their systems.

Aguiluz said the Y2K Commission will collate the data it will gather at the summit and create a recommendation paper for President Estrada. Industry experts say such a paper will prove futile, bearing in mind that it will be submitted in March--nine months before the Y2K bug trigger date.

During the launch of the summit, the Y2K Commission also delivered its first status report on the country's Y2K-readiness (see sidebar). The commission said monthly follow-up reports will be submitted and presented to media.

Issues arose from the presentation of the status report, the first one being the scope of the survey. Y2K Commission executive director Karim Bangcola said the survey had only about 266 respondents.

"We merely chose the biggest players from seven mission-critical sectors," he said.

Another issue questioned the validity of the survey itself. Aguiluz admitted that no Y2K Commission representatives were physically present when the respondents performed their Y2K evaluation, and that they could not be held liable for false or erroneous information they provide in answering the survey.

"We will have to rely on their word about the validity of their reports," he said.