大象传媒

Founder of Microsoft Bill Gates told Today the rich have an "obligation to pay their taxes...our advice to them is take their wealth and be philanthropic in their own country and help the global poorest".

Bill and Melinda Gates have published their annual letter from their charity the BIll and Melinda Gates Foundation in which they describe their hopes for what they can achieve in the next 15 years to improve global inequality.

"The good news is that on a global basis wealth inequality has gone down...places like China and India have moved up to the middle class enough that globally we are making progress on this".

"Tax policy, getting the wealthy to be more philanthropic, there's a lot that can be done to create opportunity...but what can't be debated is that the small amount of government money that goes to the poor countries does more for equality than any spending there is the world, saving lives, helping farmers...per pound it's dramatically better than any other spending that can be done".