Bill Gates Says Asia to Spawn Tech Breakthroughs

Asia will increasingly become a source of technological innovation, Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates said on Saturday.

Gates said that the quality of the work being done at Microsoft’s research centers in Asia was among the best in the world — to the extent that it was planning to more than double the staff at its campuses in Beijing and Shanghai.

"And so not only is Asia benefiting from the use of technology, Asia will be a major source of the breakthroughs and advances in technology," Gates told the annual Boao Forum for Asia on the southern Chinese island of Hainan.

Gates referred to a survey in the United States in which many respondents had said the "next Bill Gates" would come from Asia. "I think that’s true — I think it’s amazing that that’s so well recognized," he said.

Reuters