Microsoft Bulgaria will provide about $1 million to build a national network for the training of 30,000 civil servants in computer skills, managing director Teodor Milev told journalists on Tuesday.

On May 17, State Administration Minister Dimitar Kalchev and the director of Microsoft Bulgaria signed an agreement by which the state administration would receive 30,000 packages of MS Windows XP and MS Office XP software in Bulgarian. The cost of the programme products is $13,650,000 or $455 per package. According to the agreement, Microsoft Bulgaria will cover the training costs.

The Bulgarian government is getting the software for half-price - very nice - but still, there goes $13.6 million dollars out of their economy. And I imagine that the 30,000 seats needed is grossly over-estimated. Many governments in Europe are looking towards Linux - why did Bulgaria, with many good programmers - buck the trend?
10:37:56 AM