Jun 30, 2005, 12:20 GMT
Bangkok - Microsoft chairman Bill Gates on Thursday praised the current high level of compliance with intellectual property rights in Hong Kong and Taiwan, while noting that Thailand still had a ways to go.
"If you go back say 15 years and look at Hong Kong and Taiwan, the amount of piracy was close to 100 per cent and now both markets have made substantial progress and the majority of business-used software is licensed," Gates told a press conference in Bangkok.
Gates, the founder of Microsoft, met with Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra Thursday morning and announced the launch of three projects with the Thai government designed to help the country take advantage of new technology trends.
Under the agreements, Microsoft will invest 3.4 million dollars in Thailand.Net, a world class software system based on XML, a one million dollar e-education project and another 100,000 dollars to kickstart an e-government project.
Gates expressed satisfaction with the Thai government's anti-piracy rhetoric but noted that his company was still looking for more results.
"We're very satisfied with the statements the government is making about the importance...and it would be great to see the numeric progress that comes out of it, which is sometimes more challenging," said Gates.
When pressed on how Thailand ranked in terms of software piracy, Gates said, "It's certainly better than Taiwan 15 years ago, but in terms of the awareness of licenseing, not as strong as Taiwan is today."
Gates was in Thailand on a regional tour of Asia which has already taken him to Tokyo.
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