Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, “delivered a speech themed ‘investment for the poor’ at the Boao Forum for Asia held in south China’s Hainan Province from Saturday to Monday,” Xinhua reports. “During the address, he stressed that technological breakthroughs, such as in human health and agricultural productivity, could help change the lives of people living in poverty,” the news service writes, adding, “Human beings’ achievements through innovating have been ‘incredible’ in recent centuries, ranging from widening life spans to improving toilet facilities, he said” (4/9).

In similar news, Mashable.com talks with Melinda Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, about the third annual TEDxChange event last week, which, focused on the “positive disruption” of technology, as well as “how we can challenge and push the relationship among technology, health and development.” The article examines several “ideas and innovations that Gates believes are currently inspiring change in developing nations; ideas that we can learn from and expand on in order to improve quality of life around the world,” including mobile currency technologies and technologies that allow for the dissemination of information to hard-to-reach communities (Petronzio, 4/9).