Bill Gates aids Aborigines to use internet

Microsoft chairman Bill Gates says his company will build 23 new computer centres to train indigenous Australians and other underprivileged people to use the internet.

Microsoft will spend US$40 million ($62.8 million) to boost the number of computer centres it has funded in Australia to 100 by next year.

The plan is part of Microsoft's Unlimited Potential project to spend US$1 billion ($1.57 billion) worldwide over the next five years to narrow the knowledge gap between those people with access to computers and the internet and those without.