July 15, 2002

REDMOND, Wash. (AP) - Microsoft Corp. is providing about $550,000 in money, software and consulting services to the Peruvian government for educational and "e-government" initiatives.

In a news conference Monday, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates and Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo announced the contribution, Microsoft's first in Peru.

Toledo, elected last year, made technology and education a key focus, and initiated conversations with Microsoft, said Sandro Marcone Flores, executive director of the Huascaran project in Peru.

Marcone Flores downplayed whether the contributions could conflict with a proposal under debate in the Peruvian government. That proposal, by Congressman Edgar Villanueva, would obligate all public institutions to convert exclusively to open-source software, in which the underlying code is available to anyone wanting to revise or customize it.

The money will go toward training teachers as part of Toledo's Huascaran Project to improve the educational system with better instructors and technology. Microsoft's contributions will also be used to teach programming skills to potential software developers and help build a central government Web site that can deploy Internet-based services

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