SANTO DOMINGO.- Bill Gates offered his support to the Dominican Government to develop its fledgling informatics technology industry, announced Foreign minister Carlos Morales, who met in Washington with the computer industry giant.

Morales said that Gates will visit Dominican Republic shortly, invited by president Leonel Fernandez. The official said that the head of Microsoft expressed his desire to support to the country to reach a development similar to that of India, country which he has greatly supported in the computer technology industry.

"We talked at great length on the importance of information technology as support for education. In that regard, he expressed to us his criteria that education in the informatics area must begin in the first levels of elementary education to form a trained labor force,” said Morales.

Gates and Morales met in the “Microsoft Forum for Governmental Leaders of America," in which Dominican Republic was represented by its Foreign Minister, among other officials.

The forum has been held for 9 years consecutively and its objective has been to exchange experiences with government representatives on the use of informatics in the areas of services, disaster prevention and education.