Microsoft Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Steve Ballmer arrived in Hanoi last night, May 20, to start his one-day visit to Vietnam.
This morning, May 21, Mr Ballmer met with Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung and signed two cooperation agreements: the agreement on strategic partnership between Microsoft and the Vietnamese Government and the contract to sell Microsoft Office software copyright to the Vietnamese Government.
The contract to buy copyright of Microsoft Office software proves the Vietnamese government’s strong commit in protecting intellectual property, the significant foundation for economic growth and creating opportunities for Vietnam to achieve its goal of earning $10 billion from IT revenues in 2010.
According to the agreement on strategic partnership between the Vietnamese government and Microsoft, the two sides will cooperate in four major fields: using effective tools that have been used in the world, building e-government infrastructure and technical skills, narrowing the digital gap and developing local software businesses.
After the meeting with Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung, Mr Ballmer attended the conference of Window Vista developers at Hanoi Melia Hotel and met with Vietnamese Minister of Post and Telematics Do Trung Ta.
This afternoon, after a meeting with leaders of the Ministry of Education and Training, Microsoft’s CEO will participate in the signing ceremony of some important documents with the Vietnam Post and Telecommunications Group (VNPT), the Corporation for Financing and Promoting Technology (FPT), the Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BIDV) and meet some big partners in Vietnam.
Vietnam is the first destination of the Microsoft CEO in a week-visit to Asia and the Pacific. After Vietnam, he will come to Malaysia, Singapore and Australia.
Mr Ballmer has assumed the CEO position at Microsoft since 2000 and has significantly contributed to the development of this software group. Though people have recently mentioned the name Ray Ozzie as the successor of Bill Gates at Microsoft, Ballmer is still the most important person in driving the Microsoft ship on the way to maintain its influence on the IT world.
Source: Vietnam Bridge
