The Gateses visit Vietnam to push children's health

Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates and his wife, Melinda, are visiting Vietnam to help promote better children's health, government officials and state media reported Monday.

The world's richest couple agreed in principle to support Vietnam with research on vaccine development for children, said Nguyen Thi Hong Hanh, vice director of Vietnam's National Institute for Hygiene and Epidemiology.

The Gateses visited two clinics on the outskirts of Hanoi on Monday, chatted with new mothers and watched babies being immunized, said Duong Thi Khien, director of the Dong Anh district health center.

They are expected to stay in Vietnam for three days to sign papers for a donation of $240,000, the Cong An Nhan Dan (Public Security) Newspaper reported.

Bill Gates first visited Vietnam a year ago, when thousands of young Vietnamese greeted him like a rock star at a university where he spoke. This trip, however, has been quiet with little information about the visit being released.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation was created in 2000. It is the world's largest philanthropic foundation with an endowment of about $33 billion. It concentrates on promoting global health, ending poverty and hunger, and enhancing education.