Full interview with Jan Muehlfeit, Vice-President of Microsoft Europe, Middle East and Africa 

Mr Muehlfeit, you are from the Czech Republic and have a senior role in the pan-European organisation of a large company. Do you consider you national background as a plus, a minus or neutral? Does enlargement offer new opportunities for central Europeans wishing to embark on a corporate carrier?

Frankly, I consider myself to be a European with a Czech heart. Coming from the region has some obvious advantages in my role; I understand languages, mentality, cultural differences of people and customers. Historically in Central and Eastern Europe the technical education was always at a very high level, but after the changes 15 years ago, there was a shortage of sales and marketing educated individuals. In fact, I had a technical education myself. Whatever I've learned in business, marketing and management, it was in real life experience rather than in school. My tenure of 11 years at Microsoft is the best MBA you could have. I am happy and proud to be one of the first executives from Eastern Europe to advance to such senior leadership position at a multi-national company and I believe that based on the potential of this region there will be more and more opportunities for talented individuals in the future.

According to the latest forecasts, New Member States will account for the most part of Europe’s growth in ICT in the next few years. How is Microsoft planning to reap the benefits of this foreseen development? Will EU membership alone help (opening of the internal market) or are there other initiatives that should be taken at EU level to further develop ICT there?

While the ICT industry in CEE is already strong and has already experienced some tremendous growth over the past years, as a total our markets are still lagginging behind the more matured Western Europe. For the EU Enlargement countries there will be cohesion funds available and we’ll continue to see how IT can help countries to catch up in e-government or local government projects, empower Small and Medium Business to become more competitive and create more opportunities and bigger market for companies from both existing and new EU member states.

The final report on the e-Europe+ Action Plan for acceding countries has highlighted that 23 per cent of the population does not know how to use a computer. How does those statistics influence Microsoft’s strategy in these countries? As new Member States leave e-Europe+ and embark on e-Europe 2005, do you think the ICT gap between 'old' and 'New' Member States can be bridged? What would be a realistic timeframe for this to happen?

I believe there are several ways how to achieve this: increasing ICT penetration in education, which is still not at a sufficient level; deregulation of telecomunication industry and availability of Broadband or penetration of the computer and mobile devices, are just a few examples.

But in fact the EU Enlargement countries have been preparing for this historical milestone and opportunity already over the past decade. For example it is worth mentioning the "Tiger Leap" program launched by the Estonian Government in 1997, which stimulated penetration of PC and Internet by providing connectivity from a variety of easily accessible places. Estonia now claims 30 per cent PC penetration in households and 47 per cent of the population using the Internet regularly. Internet connectivity within schools and the Public Sector is 100 per cent. Similar efforts are underway in Hungary, where tax payers are benefiting from government-guaranteed "SuliNet-Home PC" financing scheme. I am therefore very optimistic that the Enlargement countries can catch-up in ICT penetration very soon.

Do you think existing European initiatives on cybercrime are enough (Council of Europe’s cybercrime treaty, e-security initiatives at EU level?) As you know, Microsoft is taking this topic very seriously and we are playing a leadership role and cooperating with law enforce ment agencies across Europe. However these are challenging times and it will take some time to address these issues as an industry overall with strong policy protection and enforcement Europe-wide and worldwide. We are very committed to help our governments succeed in these efforts and we will do whatever it takes to do so.

What is your opinion after the e-Europe mid-term report. How does Microsoft plan to anticipate the next big challenges of interoperability, open standards and providing quality content online? Do you think common standards for ICT interoperability foreseeable in the near future in the same way as 2G enabled the mass market take-up of mobile telephony?

Through XML and web services we are showing cooperation with open standards. As an industry leader we are determined to continue promoting open standards while believing in the commercial software model, which is ultimately creating the commercial partner eco system. Studies show that for every for 1 USD generated by Microsoft, there are 8 USD generated by our partner ecosystem. That is indeed a very strong argument favouring the commerial software model, especially taking into account the positive impact on taxes, new jobs etc. At the same time, please keep in mind that for example only the commercial software vendors have enough resources, and the incentive, to ensure that their software undergoes the best and most comprehensive security testing available.

What is your position on open source software and e-government plans in Eastern Europe. Are Microsoft’s IP rights at risk?

Software piracy is still high, and there are countries, where it is very high. Both education and presence of copyrights legislation and its enforecement are and will be essential in protecting any software vendor’s intellectual property, including ours. We also recognize that both open-source and commercial software are now vital components of the broader IT ecosystem.

What impact do you think the entry of the 10 new Member States will have on Public Affairs in Brussels? How is the ICT industry in Eastern countries positioning itself? ICT industry is already performing an important role: it's percentage of GDP is very high. We can play a role of a positive engine and enable our government, customers and partners be very successful in the New Europe. Real difference is when you compare not major banks, but Small and Medium Business that are still lagging behind Western Europe and I believe that’s where we have a very strong story to tell and we know how to help them grow. See, our customers expect more from Microsoft than just features in software. They expect us to deliver real business value. With the New Europe just ahead of us I am both very passionate and very confident about the great opportunities which are opening up both for us and more importantly for our customers and partners.