Bill Gates Touts 'Creative Capitalism'

Bill Gates offered his vision Thursday for a new kind of capitalism that benefits the poor as well as the rich.

Microsoft Corp.'s chairman and co-founder, one of the world's wealthiest men, said business must work with governments and nonprofit groups to stem global poverty and spur more technological innovation for those left behind.

"We have to find a way to make the aspects of capitalism that serve wealthier people serve poorer people as well," he told an auditorium packed with corporate leaders and politicians at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum. "I like to call this idea creative capitalism."

Gates outlined how business worldwide can expand the reach of market forces to offer the benefits of science and technology to all.

"This is how I see the world, and it should make one thing clear: I am an optimist," he said. "But I am an impatient optimist. The world is getting better, but it's not getting better fast enough, and it's not getting better for everyone."

To illustrate his push toward more social responsibility, he announced that Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft teamed with Dell Inc., the Round Rock, Texas-based maker of personal computers, to sell a Red-branded PC.

The Red brand includes products sold by American Express Co., Apple Inc., Motorola Inc., and other companies that give a slice of the revenue to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. It was first announced at the forum's 2006 meeting by U2 singer Bono.

Gates said the Red-branded products have generated $50 million for the fund in the last year and a half.

"As a result, nearly 2 million people in Africa are receiving lifesaving drugs today," he said.

Courtesy:aol.in
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