Microsoft Committed to Local Technology Access in China, Japan, Malaysia


On separate tours of the Asia-Pacific region, Microsoft's chairman and CEO join government officials in committing resources and know-how to narrowing the technology-skills gap in Asian communities.

BEIJING, -/July 2, 2004 - Wi-Fi Technology News/- With a symbolic toss of soil to plant a pair of young trees at the entrance to a middle school here, Microsoft Chairman and Chief Software Architect Bill Gates helped senior officials of the Chinese Ministry of Education launch the first of 100 computer classrooms -- most of them in rural China -- to be equipped through an ambitious government initiative supported by Microsoft's Partners in Learning program.

During separate tours of the Asian-Pacific region this week, Gates and Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer both helped launch local programs in China, Malaysia and Japan supported by Partners in Learning, a five-year, global Microsoft initiative to help governments around the world provide technology access and skills training to students and educators .

"We believe that technology is one of the most powerful tools that teachers and governments can use to educate and inform people of any age," Gates said in Beijing today.

The three Asian countries are the most recent to collaborate with Microsoft under Partners in Learning, which was launched in September 2003. Global in scope and local in implementation, Partners in Learning supports governments' digital-inclusion efforts by partnering with education and government leaders to offer schools and administrators a spectrum of education resources: software discounts and donations, technology skills training and curriculum, technical support and research resources.

Microsoft's two chiefs this week have joined national and local officials to launch Partners in Learning programs in:

Malaysia: On Tuesday (June 29), Gates visited a secondary school in Putrajaya, near the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lampur, for the signing of a memorandum of understanding with the Ministry of Education that will cover the entire K-12 school system of Malaysia, more than 5 million students in 12,000 schools.

Gates and Malaysia's Minister of Education, Dato' Hishammuddin, inaugurated the program at the Alam Shah Secondary School, where a group of students won a nationwide "WhizChamps" competition on nascent IT skills by refurbishing used PCs, installing them in an orphanage, and training young residents of the orphanage in the use of PCs.

Japan: On Tuesday (June 29), Microsoft's Ballmer and the governor of Japan's Hokkaido Prefecture, Harumi Takahashi, signed a Partners in Learning agreement to establish a pair of IT incubation programs: Project Frontier Venture, in which Microsoft will provide software, technical support and training to IT startups in Hokkaido; and Project Stella, a program to boost teacher and student IT skills at a dozen job-training schools. Microsoft will provide coursework training materials and trainers.

Ballmer reminded officials gathered for a videoconference that the two programs supported Microsoft's primary goal: to help people and businesses throughout the world to realize their full potential. "That means opportunity," Ballmer said, "opportunity to learn and understand the newest technologies, and opportunity to create new businesses and companies, which is very important in shaping the world.

"These are important investments that this government can make in technology to become a more vibrant part of the lives of the citizens of Hokkaido Prefecture," Ballmer said.

China: Gates' visit today (July 1) to the Beijing Normal University Affiliation Experimental High School marked the first fruit of a Partners in Learning agreement Microsoft and the Chinese Ministry of Education signed in November 2003, committing the software company to five years and at least US$10 million in support for local efforts to bring IT training to many of China's most remote areas.

While meeting with students at the school, Gates saluted the Chinese government's policy of supporting widespread education -- especially in rural regions -- through digital inclusion, a goal matched by those of Microsoft's Partners in Learning initiative.

Microsoft plans to equip some 100 Chinese middle schools with computer classrooms by the end of 2005. Already, the first five pilot classrooms have been opened in four comparatively remote locations: Tanghe Middle School in China's central Hebei Province, Taibei Middle School in northwest Shaanxi Province, Shangri-La No. 1 Middle School in the southwest Yunnan Province, Dazi Middle School in the Tibet Autonomous Region, plus the Beijing school Gates visited today.

Drawing on its extensive library of technology training materials, Microsoft has helped Chinese officials develop textbooks, and will help launch pilot teacher training programs in Hubei, Yunnan and Gansu provinces this year. Through its China Technology Center in Beijing, Microsoft has joined the Chinese Ministry of Education and local partners in developing localized learning technologies.

Source: Microsoft