Bill Gates signs agreement for Government Security Program

The world's richest man and the creator of Microsoft, Bill Gates, paid a one day visit to Poland yesterday. He met with President Kwaśniewski, Prime Minister Miller, and gave lectures to students and programmers at the Warsaw School of Economics (SGH). Announcing that his main reason for coming to Warsaw was the economic changes that have taken place in recent times, and Poland's perspectives on the future joining the European Union. "This is evidence of the country's huge potential," said Gates. Poland is currently Microsoft's largest market in Central and Eastern Europe. During a meeting with Miller, an agreement was signed defining Poland's part in the Gov ernment Security program. Thanks to this agreement Poland will be one of the few countries, which will gain access to the code sources of Microsoft software. This will lead to a huge progress in the security of government IT systems. Ryszard Krauze of Prokom who signed a letter of intent with Bill Gates, concerning access to the source, said this will mean Prokom will become one of 150 companies throughout the world with such a privilege. (Rzeczpospolita, p. B3) A.K.