William (Bill) H. Gates spoke today before a group of 2,500 Israeli leaders of industry at the David Intercontinental Hotel in Tel Aviv. The speech was webcast live exclusively by "Globes TV".
Gates opened his speech by saying that he was very excited to be in Israel. "For Microsoft, having an R&D center in Israel has been a great experience for us. The quality of the people here is quite fantastic".
Gates then presented "The New World of Work", his vision for a new generation of productivity software for the next decade.
"One of the great advances in software is what we call service oriented architecture which allows computers to share information. This has been our dream for many decades. It’s the standards of the Internet [XML] that allowed that to take place. And so the dream of complete interoperability is a very important dream for us to have. E-commerce and e-government can only take place when interoperability is in place.
"In the world of business software we really have two worlds that are not perfectly connected. We have the structured world -- what we call business solutions -- and the unstructured world -- like MS Office. Bridging between theses ERP systems and MS Office is one of the great opportunities that we have. This requires innovation, data connectors and taking the XML revolution and building it into our applications."
Gates noted that in the early Nineties, people already aspired to the ideal of a digital lifestyle, but that the change did not come as quickly as anticipated. "We sometimes think these changes will happen overnight… but it required getting the broadband infrastructure in place and at a low-cost. And Israel has really been leader in that [broadband technology and standardization]".
Acting Minister of Finance, Minister of Industry, Trade and Labor, and Vice Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who introduced Gates, said that the government of Israel was actively implementing Microsoft's new vision through its E-government online project. "What we try to do is make use of the opportunities we have to reduce bureaucracy, and there is no better partner for us than Microsoft. We are very hopeful that this cooperation will generate a reality that will be almost entirely free of unnecessary bureaucracy and provide better service to the people of Israel".
Olmert also announced that Gates had that morning signed an agreement of cooperation between Microsoft and the State of Israel's Office of the Chief Scientist of the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labor.
"The agreement will allow Israeli start-up companies to benefit from the knowledge of Microsoft in the future. And I'm sure many opportunities will be created as a result of this".
Olmert added that he was confident other companies, "once they hear of this agreement, will be even more interested than before in investing in Israel… And I have plans to be in charge of the economy of the State of Israel in these years. We will indeed take all the necessary to ensure that Israel lives up to the trust that people like Bill Gates have in our potential and our future".
Olmert closed by wishing Gates a happy 50th birthday. Gate's birthday is the day after tomorrow.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes.co.il - on Wednesday, October 26, 2005