A/RES/53/86 Page 2 Emphasizing also that coordinated efforts by Governments and private, public and international organizations are required to address the year 2000 problem, Appreciating the establishment of a trust fund by the World Bank to assist in the efforts to resolve the year 2000 problem and the voluntary contributions made to it by the member States, Appreciating also the efforts of the Ad Hoc Open-ended Working Group on Informatics of the Economic and Social Council in raising the level of awareness of the year 2000 problem, 1. Requests all Member States urgently to increase their efforts to solve the year 2000 problem, including by working to ensure that the private sector is fully engaged in addressing the problem, tackling it in those systems within their own control and appointing their respective national coordinators for this purpose; 2. Appeals to all Member States to forge global cooperation to ensure a timely and effective response to the year 2000 challenge and to work together to address the threats the problem poses globally; 3. Calls upon Governments, public and private sector organizations and civil society to share locally, regionally and globally information about their experiences in addressing the year 2000 problem; 4. Urges all Member States to emphasize the importance of contingency planning and to develop such plans to address the potential for possible large-scale failures in the public and private sectors; 5. Requests the Secretary-General to take steps to ensure that all parts of the United Nations system take measures to ensure that their computers and equipment with embedded microprocessors are year 2000 compliant well before the target date by drawing up a plan of action for the United Nations system; 6. Takes note with appreciation of the suggested guidelines for addressing the year 2000 problem of computers prepared by the Economic and Social Council at its substantive session of 1998, as contained in the annex to Council resolution 1998/45 of 31 July 1998, and urges Member States to draw upon them in addressing the diverse aspects of the year 2000 problem; 7. Requests the Secretary-General to ensure that the United Nations system closely monitors actual and potential sources of funding to support the efforts of the developing countries and countries with economies in transition to address the year 2000 problem, and to facilitate the dissemination of relevant information on those funding possibilities to the Member States; 8. Also requests the Secretary-General to report to the General Assembly at its fifty-fourth session on the steps taken within the United Nations system and with Member States to resolve the year 2000 problem; 9. Decides to include in the provisional agenda of its fifty-fourth session the item entitled “Global implications of the year 2000 date conversion problem of computers” and to complete its action under that agenda item before the deadline of 31 December 1999. 81st plenary meeting 7 December 1998