Unless developing countries make a determined effort to become Y2K compliant, economic and social difficulties are likely to occur. They may range from disruptions in the financial and banking sector to the communications, power and transportation systems as well as in the provision of essential services, including food distribution and medical care. To assist developing countries, the World Bank's InfoDev programme has set up a Y2K conversion centre promoting remediation and contingency efforts. This centre is providing grants for developing countries to carry out necessary activities in that regard. In the telecommunications sector, the countries with the least prepared telecommunications systems are in Africa, South Asia and Southeast Asia, while Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Central and South American are seen as halfway to full conversion.
Awareness also differs between the public and private sectors.
In Mexico, some government agencies, including the National Statistics Institute, have completed their conversion and the central bank has updated 103 out of its 171 priority systems. However, more than two thirds of private sector companies haven't taken any action yet. As the number of computers in developing countries is limited, it might be assumed that the Y2K problem in developing countries is not as serious as in industrialised countries. However, in reality, it means that these countries are dependent on older systems and for those backup computers and the tools needed for conversions cannot be made available at all. Y2K conversion programmes.