RIYADH, 11 November 2006 — Thousands of people were trying to act casual on Wednesday as they awaited the late arrival of Microsoft’s Chairman Bill Gates in the main ballroom at the Four Seasons Hotel. However, the line-up of top Saudi CEOs, tier one IT professionals and prominent seating reserved for women indicated the importance that the government and the business community placed in the events sponsored by the Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority and Microsoft.
After delivering his third presentation that day, Gates sat down for an interview before the main press conference. The tone of the discussion showed that the Microsoft chairman had high hopes that the 14 development agreements signed that morning would “empower people to reach their full potential.” But he did criticize deficiencies in the Kingdom’s environment that he believes could be a threat to Saudi Arabia achieving the goal of becoming a digital economy.
“I think these agreements are a great milestone and the groups we are working with are key to that effort and I think we can play a significant role. I wouldn’t say the signing itself guarantees success but I do think it can be a strong element. There is a big emphasis on some educational partnerships and I am pleased to see the priority being put into that,” Gates said. “If this country is going to really embrace the digital approach and get the competitiveness or empowerment benefits that come with that, education is the sector that is sort of the master switch.”
His comments quickly turned to what he views as one of the major obstructions to creating a digital economy in the Kingdom.
“I think that having cheap Internet connections is a key factor that you can use to drive a lot of the other improvements. In fact most of the things I’ve learned about Saudi Arabia are actually further along than I would have expected, like state of the art universities. The cost you see of broadband is actually the one where I am surprised and think more needs to be put into that.”
He elaborated: “Compared to some of these other things people talk about, building roads, hey that’s good. Build the university, that’s fine. Putting optic fiber throughout the country is actually easier than that and kind of fundamental. That probably needs to be bumped up, whatever is holding that back, in the spirit of all these plans, that needs to change as fast as possible.”
Saudi Arabia’s inadequate high speed Internet connectivity remained on Gates’ mind even when he spoke about Microsoft’s efforts to train teachers in basic computer skills through its “Partners in Learning” global initiative.
“So far we’ve trained 30,000 teachers. That’s a good start,” he advised. “More and more schools are being connected — I hope that’s broadband because dial up is not good enough. A lot of the information you want to see (for example) — if you want to see lectures from MIT, that’s video, that’s broadband.”
Increasing use of computers and related technologies has led Microsoft to step up its activities in other areas as well, and Gates is calling for better enforcement of the Kingdom’s intellectual property protection regulations to compliment Microsoft’s own anti-piracy efforts. A 2006 report by the International Intellectual Property Alliance put the level of business software piracy in Saudi Arabia at 52 percent.
“Microsoft believes that people who do creative work should get compensated for that. (In the US) you don’t find many businesses where they say, ‘Hey let’s save some money by stealing the software.’ There’s almost none of that,” he pointed out. “The awareness of copyright is higher today in Saudi Arabia than it was five years ago. It’s still not as good as I would expect and if you’re going to have a local software economy, the local developers are more dependent on the copyright compliance than the global developers are because they are always going to bootstrap off of the local buyers. So on the business side, there should be a lot more progress.”
Microsoft’s chairman explained that when it comes to protecting its intellectual property rights in regards to Microsoft’s software used by consumers, the company has tried to lower its prices so that consumers find genuine software to be a good value.
“We try to be smart about pricing for consumers and you’re probably not going to get to a hundred percent compliance. That’s okay,” he said.
Gates is well aware and pleased that Microsoft’s technologies are ubiquitous throughout the Kingdom. The high interest shown by Saudi women toward his visit demonstrates that the use of IT is penetrating to every corner of Saudi society. Despite this, Gates put forward his belief that even rapid improvements in the use of IT in the Kingdom won’t allow women to be fully productive members of Saudi society. “I’m not an expert on this issue. It is the first time I’ve been in a room where the women are off on one side and the men are off on another side. That’s new to me,” he said in a thoughtful manner. “There’s that old joke where you’ve got a dog on the computer keyboard and it says, ‘The great thing about the Internet is that nobody knows that you’re a dog.’ I’m not sure that just because the Internet lets people work without seeing each other that solves this problem.”
He urged people to understand that “if you’re really going to tap fully the potential of women in the country, IT isn’t magic. You’re going to have to have some way that people can sit in a room and work together, at least that’s my personal view.
“Yes, technology lets people sit in two different rooms and collaborate better than you can without technology. So it’s a crutch and it can help. But just because there is technology, is it necessary to be isolated? If so, yes, IT is a tool that makes that less problematic than not using technology, but it’s not some total solution by itself.”
