Yet, in a competitive telecommunications market, competitors often fear losing their advantage and, hence, keep critical information from one another. To many countries, state-owned telecommunications operators are their national jewel. They do not want to reveal their managerial weaknesses and lose face by making public their lack of Y2K readiness. Releasing information to competitors may raise concern about anti-competitive liability. If the millennium problem affects stakeholders' well-being, the company might even risk lawsuits and a dive in share value should its Y2K status leak into the public domain.
Some countries place a higher priority on other issues.
The struggling Asian economies are occupied with improving their real productivity and are not inclined to divert attention to fixing the millennium bug, which is after all an economically non-productive activity. In Europe, where conversion to Euro will take effect in less than 100 days, not all organizations within the EU member states can afford to address Year 2000, which is still more than 450 days away. The growing concern has pushed up the demand for Y2K experts. Following the laws of demand and supply, the prices for these scarce talents are escalating. Nobody can guarantee that date fixes will work.