Steve Ballmer reinforced Microsoft’s partnership with the Portuguese State with the signing of a protocol that will allow bringing US-branded software to Magalhães.
With this agreement, inserted in the Memorandum of Understanding 2.0, Microsoft becomes a partner in the internationalization of the Portuguese laptop – which already has orders for several countries in Latin America and Europe – and marks «another highlight» in the partnership that has come to be developed in the last three years between the two parties, characterize the parties.
Within the scope of this agreement, a learning suite will be integrated in Magalhães where tools such as Office 2007 and additional products that allow interaction between parents, students and teachers will be found. Microsoft products integrated into the notebook include Microsoft Learning Essentials, Virtual Earth, Microsoft Mathematics and Family Safety.
At the protocol ceremony, Steve Ballmer confessed that Magalhães and technological support for students is a «unique, amazing and phenomenal» initiative on a worldwide scale, both for its pioneering spirit and for the proportions it is taking on in the Information Society. As such, Microsoft’s support ends up «symbolizing the willingness to work with Portugal in technological development and to create new opportunities in the knowledge economy».
So far, the partnership has been successful and «the numbers don’t lie», said the head of Microsoft, citing some of the achievements obtained following the Memorandum of Understanding, results that show a country «with innovative growth».
At the end of his speech, Steve Ballmer gave the floor to Prime Minister José Sócrates saying that «it is a pride to support the initiative that […] will help to increase the knowledge and economic prosperity «of the country.
José Sócrates recalled the importance of the Technological Plan as a set of measures aimed at the whole of Portuguese society and stressed that the appearance of Magalhães is not «a star fallen from the sky but the result of a modernization movement that crosses society» and that started with eEscola.
In the end, the Prime Minister referred that the introduction of Magalhães accelerates the modernization of the country and will make the next generation better at dealing with ICT and better prepared for the future, «making Portugal a better country».
The agreement signed today between the Government and Microsoft targets several areas, as TeK anticipated yesterday, although today’s ceremony was focused on the multinational’s collaboration with the Magalhães project.
