Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates concluded Microsoft's Government Leaders Forum Asia conference by introducing the centerpiece in the company's action plan to help transform educational opportunity around the globe.

For five years, Microsoft's Partners in Learning program has been nurturing and supporting the world's most innovative teachers and schools, and later this year it will expand to incorporate new innovations for students with affordable licenses to mainstream Microsoft products and services. The new Microsoft Student Innovation Suite rounds out the company's Partners in Learning program by adding an offer for governments that provide PCs directly to students in kindergarten through 12th grade.

Orlando Ayala, senior vice president of Microsoft's Emerging Segments Market Development Group, says, "We're acutely aware of the digital divide that puts many young people at a disadvantage in terms of acquiring critical 21st-century skills. We hear this same concern expressed by the governments and education communities of developing countries, from Guatemala to Namibia to Thailand to India and China. These nations know their young people will benefit greatly from having access to modern computers equipped with complete, educationally relevant software solutions that they can use in their schools and homes. At Microsoft, we know that too. We also know that PCs for students need to be both highly capable and inexpensive. And to deliver real educational value on those PCs, the software has to be affordable and compatible with thousands of innovative education, productivity and communication applications available around the world."

The Microsoft Student Innovation Suite aims to open up new worlds of opportunity for students in lower-income and disadvantaged communities by making the software most universally used in education today, Microsoft Windows and Microsoft Office, available at a deep discount. Microsoft developed the innovation suite as a vital new commitment to its vision for education, which holds that all people of all ages should have the ability to realize their potential through access to high-quality educational opportunities.