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Jean-Philippe Curtois, Microsoft president of the Europe, Middle-East and Africa region, has been appointed to president Thabo Mbeki's IT advisory team.Curtois will joint the likes of Oracle CEO Larry Ellison and Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina on the Presidential International Advisory Council on Information Society and Development, which had its first meeting last year.
The council, and a counterpart of South African nationals, were established to advise Mbeki as SA seeks to use technology to speed up its social and economic development.
Microsoft was not represented on the initial panel of technology CEOs. It has since entered into an agreement with the government to give all public schools in the country free use of some of its software, shortly after the release of a report suggesting that government adopt free open source software.
The council will meet at Fancourt in the Western Cape this weekend to receive a report back on the progress since its last meeting. Also on the agenda is the establishment of an information and communication technology institute long planned by the government.
A meeting of the National Council and a technology strategy session hosted by the Department of Communications are to take place at the same time.
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