CADP is Y-2K Ready

November 19, 1999 PSE CIRCULAR FOR BROKERS NO. 2961-99 CADP IS Y-2K READY Central Azucarera Don Pedro announced that it has completed all measures that ensure that its operations will continue into the Year 2000 and beyond. "We assure the general public, our customers, suppliers and growers that the Company will continue producing refined and raw sugar needed specially during the Christmas holidays and the coming year," CADP president Miguel Gaspar said. In its disclosure to the Presidential Commission on Year 2000 Compliance, the Company said that it has been Y-2K ready since July. CADP is the country's largest sugar refiner. In the recently concluded 1998-99 crop year, its Batangas integrated sugar factory produced a total of 5.76 million bags of refined sugar, accounting for 28 percent of total industry production of 20.63 million bags. It posted 120 thousand metric tons of raw sugar output also during the period. The sugar manufacturing facilities of CADP a publicly listed corporation are mostly automated and are equipped with computer-based industrial control and instrumentation. The equipment and control systems have been certified to be free from microprocessor programs with the year 2000 error. Gaspar explained that the business re-engineering program that CADP undertook in 1995 facilitated the early completion of its Y-2K effort. "The potential millennium bug problem was already considered and addressed in our program to install up-to-date business processes and equipment in all aspects of the organization," he noted. The sugar company assured the Y-2K readiness of its mission critical systems after exhaustive audit and testing procedures of production equipment, automated administrative and logistics processes, and computer hardware and software. CADP also conducted Y-2K awareness seminars to managers, supervisors and rank-and-file personnel in the first quarter of the year. cdlex