This weeks newsletter from the ICT for Development section of the Development Gateway is shock full of Open Source news related to the developing world. (And I’ve added a few extra tidbits of my findings from other sources):

Reuters reports on the, by now, well-known story that China is putting it’s money and mouth behind Open Source software, in a bid to become independent of US software companies.

This seems to be a general trend throughout Asia, as Silicon Valley reports that the Vietnamese government is supporting a plan that would require all state-owned companies and governemtn ministries to use Open Source software by 2005. Also, it would require all computers manufactured in Vietnam to be sold with open-source products installed on them.
“We are trying step by step to eliminate Microsoft,” said Nguyen Trung Quynh of Vietnam’s Ministry of Science and Technology. Quynh and other government tech officials want Vietnam to be on the cutting edge of an international movement to embrace open-source software — products that can be downloaded from the Internet for free and perform the same tasks as Microsoft Windows or Office.
Ironically, this seems to be a plan which main target is to stem the widespread pirating of software, to comply with a trade agreement with the United States (and the World Trade Organisation). So the US forces them to not use US products.

Meanwhile, the MAlaysian governement has created a fund of USD 36 million, to support start-ups developing Open Source software.

While, according to this article,
The South African government and the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research recently launched Project Meraka (a Sotho word for shared grazing), a resource centre where government departments, companies and individuals will be able to obtain neutral open source information, such as where to find products and support.

It’s busy times for the Free Software movement around the world. And it makes me happy.