Microsoft (China) Co., Ltd. became a member of the China Software Industry Association (CSIA) on Monday, the first overseas-funded business obtaining such a status in China since the country's World Trade Organization accession.
According to Wednesday's Beijing Times, the company expects its membership will assist it to make business deals during the government procurement drive and to acquire a bigger share of the market with a huge potential.
China's governments this year will double their 2001 software purchases, and foreign-invested IT firms will have the same opportunities as their domestic counterparts to slice a piece off the procurement-pie, the newspaper said.
The government spent about four billion yuan (US$482 million) last year in software purchase, or 14.1 percent of the overall software businesses in China.
Tang Jun, president of Microsoft (China), considers the accession to CSIA a milestone for the development of Microsoft's China business, the newspaper said.
(People's Daily June 13, 2002)
