Volume 6, Number 7, Page 4

Argentina Signs Agreement with Microsoft

By Sergio Serrichio

A new agreement signed by Carlos Menem provides that Microsoft will work with Argentina in the development and exportation of computer software. Towards this end, the Seattle-based company has agreed to increase its Argentine investments.

Carlos Menem signed a letter of intent with Bill Gates agreeing that Microsoft would establish an “information hub” in Argentina. In exchange, the Argentine Government will work to “control and eradicate” software piracy, in both the public and private sector— a long-standing demand of U.S. businesses, particularly Bill Gates.

According to the text of the document, Microsoft will assist the government “in the implementation of software development and exportation projects in order to create a hub of industrial development that will establish Argentina as one of the largest software producers among Spanish-speaking nations.”

“Microsoft has made the decision to expand their investment projects in Argentina and this accord will generate the conditions for this to take place,” affirmed the Argentine Ambassador to the U.S., Diego Guelar.

Guelar, the Secretary of Communications, Germán Kammerath and the Undersecretary of Public Affairs, Claudia Bello, accompanied President Menem to his meeting with Gates and the presentation of Microsoft’s proposal. There the participants reviewed the planned support Microsoft will give to argentin@internet.todos, (an Argentine program working to develop the Internet and its applications) in the creation of “virtual communities,” computer consulting services and the training of personnel.

The other clauses of the agreement cover the donation of programs in the areas of education and the development of electronic commerce (“e-commerce”). While speaking before a panel of executives, Menem announced the realization of the first national census on computer literacy and invited those present to invest in Argentina, “Especially Bill Gates.”

Microsoft has been one of the most vociferous proponents of the Business Software Alliance (BSA), a group that has advocated Washington to pressure Argentina into approving new regulations against software piracy. This objective was reached at the meeting.

The most stringent of the BSA’s proposals is that software companies receive restitution for the ongoing use of pirated software in the public sector and towards this end, they reached a pre-agreement with Claudia Bello, which was not, however, finalized. According to the BSA, illegal copying of software in Argentina accounted in 1997 for 65 percent of the market; due to such piracy, software companies lost over US$ 105 million.

The most extensive an detailed section of the five-part letter of intention signed by Menem and Gates is that dealing with the control and eradication of piracy. One of the articles therein establishes the requirement for on site inspections to detect the illegal use of software in the public sector. n

The above article was translated from the Spanish and first appeared in the Buenos Aires Económico.