WASHINGTON, Nov 22: Philippines president Fidel Ramos met with Microsoft Corp chairman Bill Gates on Friday and proudly collected a certificate legalising much of his government's pirated computer software.

After a ceremony to observe the signing of agreements tightening relations between the software giant and the Philippines, Gates presented Ramos with a licence for free software that was the equivalent of a partial declaration of amnesty.

The license allows the Philippine government to use older Microsoft products, such as the DOS operating system, that previously were being used illegally by many government agencies in the Southeast Asian nation, where the software piracy rate is an estimated 90 per cent.

The licence, valued at up to $1 million, was granted in recognition of the Ramos government's determination to legalise software used by public agencies, Microsoft officials said.

Microsoft also has agreed to grant half-price licences to the government for current software programmes such as Windows 95 and Office, Microsoft business development manager for the Philippines Sam Jacoba, said.

``This is a historic moment for all of us because now we are all legally interconnected,'' Ramos said, holding up a leather binder containing the licensing grant.

Under the agreements signed at the ceremony, Microsoft will provide ``advisory and consultancy'' services to help the Philippines reach its goal of establishing the information infrastructure to connect every home, school, business and government agency by 2000.

Gates said he would visit the Philippines sometime in the first half of 1998.Ramos also met with several top Boeing executives during his stopover on the way to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting in Vancouver.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.