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| Sunday, 14 December 2003 |
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| News Business Features Editorial
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Microsoft subsidiary in January by Chanuka Mannapperuma Microsoft Corporation, USA will set up its Colombo subsidiary, Microsoft Corporation (Pvt) Ltd, in January. The US giant signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Sri Lankan Government in November in Washington. It was signed by Minister of Economic Reforms, Science and Technology Milinda Moragoda and President, Microsoft, Asia Pacific Region, Sanjay Mirchandani in the presence of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and Microsoft's Senior Vice President and General Counsel, Brad Smith. Under the MoU, Microsoft will contribute to the social and economic development of the country by making Windows available in Sinhala and Tamil under the Microsoft Language Interface, Local IT eco-system and building skills through IT training for students, teachers and government employees based on a common project with the aim of creating employment opportunities in Sri Lanka, facilitating and supporting the development and implementation of e-government applications with ICTA throughout the Lankan government, through training and special discounted pricing programmes and forming partnerships with ICTA in the development of an innovation centre to deliver strategic e-government projects research that will include help-desk support. Microsoft also agreed to provide the government at no cost, information resources and professional training to assist in security planning assessments and solutions. Microsoft's Director of Business Development, APAC Emerging Markets, Faycal Bouchlaghem said under the company's strategy in the local ICT industry, it will introduce localised Windows software suited for the country's requirements while building a local ICT e-computer system to strengthen strong e- government services. Faycal said six million dollars have been invested in this regard. "We hope to start IT education programmes for schoolchildren and training programmes for adults," he said. |
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