Yeeli Hua Zheng: Icon of our time, king of software and one of the wealthiest men on earth; beyond the world of
technology and business, what other concerns and responsibilities does he have? Today we are honored to speak
with Bill Gates. Thank you very much for being with us.

Bill Gates: It's good to be here.

Yeeli Hua Zheng: The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the largest Foundation in world history, has a focused
mission to improve global health; could you please tell our Chinese audience how this idea to put your money to work
on global health improvement occurred to you?

Yeeli Hua Zheng: Well, I had the chance to travel the world and was stunned to see things that we take for granted
in the United States and health are not available to most of the world's children, on the vaccinations, the good food,
the clean water. And as I went back and studied that and found that literally millions of lives a year could be saved in
a fairly low cost way if things like vaccines or improved food were made available. And so I saw this as so urgent,
rather than wait until my old age to do philanthropy,  I decided that we should go ahead now. So we are giving over a
$billion a year and priority is used for health.  I am very excited to be involved in it. We've joined up with a lot of
partners. Already we've seen a huge impact for the work we are doing.    

Yeeli Hua Zheng: You once said "you are the right person at the right time"; as one of the richest people on earth,
do you feel a special responsibility to the world and to the well being of humanity?

Bill Gates: Well, I feel two big responsibilities. The first is that in my work in creating breakthrough software that is
done in a way that empowers people. I believe the personal computers are the best tools that we've ever created,  
and we can make far far better, and also easier to use at very low cost, so that many more people can benefit from
what we are doing there. So I have a responsibility in my work. The second responsibility is that whatever wealth that
work generates I want  to give back to society in a way that improves quality and that improves lives of people as
much as possible. And I found that world wealth is the best way to do that.

Yeeli Hua Zheng:  You have always said that you would give away almost your entire fortune in your lifetime. What
is your philosophy and attitude toward wealth?

Bill Gates: I think I am very lucky to have been educated the way I was and have the right skills for building a
company like Microsoft. My attitude is that this wealth---I am a steward of this wealth. I need to find the best way that
it should be put to use. The Foundation is quite large already and will be receiving more resources, because that is
where I am devoting all my resources.  

Yeeli Hua Zheng: Will the U.S Federal government's actions against Microsoft impede in any way your level of
commitment and capacity to work on world health through the Foundation?

Bill Gates: Certainly Microsoft is one of the most successful companies ever in history and throughout that success
comes challenges, legal challenges, challenges of reaching out around the world, making the product better. I feel
very confident that Microsoft is doing a great job rising to all of these challenges. I have no doubt that the software
and the success of Microsoft in the decades ahead will be even greater than we've seen so far.

Yeeli Hua Zheng: Your father told me that he is most proud of your independence, confidence and creativity. So
with your creative bent, dedication and tremendous resources, are you confident that you can accomplish the
mission and objectives of the Foundation---to create opportunity and equity for the world?

Bill Gates: The goals of the Foundation are very ambitious. We want to save millions of lives every year. I do not
think any foundations ever had that goal or ambition. We are very lucky to be hiring some of the top people, who
understand science and who understand public health, to come to help us do that. I am optimistic. I see the progress
we have made so far was much greater than we would have expected. The partnerships we have are fantastic. We
have a partnership with China with respect to Hepatitis B vaccine to be formally announced next month, and lots of
partnerships that really make sure that we do achieve these very ambitious goals.

Yeeli Hua Zheng: We understand that you are going to donate around $40 million to China through the Gates
Foundation on a children's vaccine project. We are looking forward that.  Who do you admire most and why?

Bill Gates: I have been lucky to meet a lot of incredible people, scientists, people like Richard Feinman,  business
leaders, people like Warren Buffet, have taught me a lot; political leaders, like Nelson Mandela, or Jiang Ze-min, who
I had a long dinner meeting with, which was very very fascinating. So I hope that I am able to learn lessons of
success from those people and bring that to bear to my work. Again I feel very lucky to meet with these people
because they are so incredible.  


*  broadcast on Hong Kong Cable   

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