Talks on computer bank

Press, 11 September 1989, Page 18

Talks on computer bank

By

RICHARD CRESSWELL

The development of the New Zealand-based computerised global information storage bank has been discussed in Wellington. Officials from the New Zealand Planning Council, the Ministry of External Relations and Trade, and the New Zealand Computer Society ' discussed the plan Tor New Zealand to become an alternative

global information storage centre. A researcher for the Nuclear-Free Peacemaking Association, Mr John Gallagher, said the global repository was gaining worldwide support. A feasibility study will be funded by the Government. One of the project’s principals, Mr Gordon Hogg, of Wellington, said New Zealand had advantages for the storage bank that neutral countries

could not match. “We have no borders with other countries, and even Switzerland cannot match that,” he said. New Zealand was relatively secure, and isolated, he said. Complete records could be transferred to New Zealand if a country came under threat. New Zealand could also be mutually acceptable to Japan and the United States as an information centre.

Other countries interested in the project included Switzerland which considered depositing financial records in such a bank.

Mr Gallagher said the proposal had been discussed with the computer giant, Unisys. Countries taking part in the information storage bank would supply their own computer-ware, while New Zealand would supply the site and concept, for a charge.