China has released the world's first Tibetan-language office software, in an effort to facilitate the use of computers among Tibetans.

The newly released "Neo-shine Tibet Office 3.0", jointly developed by China Standard Software Corporation (CSCC) and Tibet University, will push the development of Tibet's information industry, said Chen Ying, an official with China's Ministry of Information Industry.

Schools in Lhasa, capital of Tibet, are expected to be equipped with the software, said Han Naiping, manager of CSCC.

"The software is world-leading because the programmers have tackled several technological difficulties, such as the coding and input of the Tibetan language," said Han.

The office software is expected to replace Microsoft Office, which was previously widely used in Tibetan-speaking regions, but requires additional plug-ins for the use of the Tibetan language.

Tibetan is used on a daily basis by more than five million people in Tibet and the nearby provinces of Gansu, Sichuan, Yunnan and Qinghai.

According to the Ministry of Information Industry, Chinese companies are also developing 12 other Tibetan Software products, including "STAR Tibetan for Windows 2000/XP" and "Tibetan operating system for Linux". These software products will be launched later in 2008.

Programmers are also working on software products in Korean, Mongolian and Uygur languages, Chen said.

(Xinhua News Agency January 10, 2008)