On April 3, the first China-Japan-S.Korea IT ministers' conference for OSS (Open Source Software) was held in Beijing. It was jointly sponsored by China Ministry of Information, Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry and Ministry of Public Management, Home Affairs, Posts and Telecommunications of Japan, and Ministry of Information and Communication of ROK. The three countries signed "the Memo for Cooperation on Opening Source Code".

Sources concerned said that as the three nations were heading for the same goal of promoting the cooperation on and development of open source software and pushing forward the campaign of opening source code in the northeast Asia, they agreed to exchange information on open source software, share research results, and make joint efforts on developing open source software of next generation based on the software with freely available source code represented by Linux.

According to the Memo for Cooperation on Opening Source Code, the three nations have reached the consensus that global cooperation would be necessary for the development of open source software, open source software would favor the fast and healthy development of the software industry and help to prevent possible risks of information security.

China, Japan and ROK all agreed to begin their cooperation in this aspect with Linux as Linux operating system was regarded as one of the most typical open source software. The three parties vowed to adhere to the principle of opening source code and make joint efforts to give contribution to the global open source software community.

China, Japan and ROK all recognized the problem either in sharing information and technologies or in marketing of open source software because of the scattered development resources and inadequate compatibility between various Linux systems based on different standards.

The Memo for Cooperation on Opening Source Code constitutes a framework in which China, Japan and ROK will work together on Linux standards acceptable among them to realize the information exchanges and research results sharing between them. The trio expressed their willingness to encourage and support the development of open source software, promote the application of Linux on a market-oriented basis, create a amiable environment for the application and industrial development of open source software and offer favorable policies for the industry.

China, Japan and ROK will jointly make research on certification system for open source software, build testing environment for the compliance and compatibility of Linux software standards, and evaluate and certify the quality and performance of products. The trio is also ready to make cooperation on fostering talents on software R&D and application.

China, Japan and ROK all stressed to give high priority to intellectual property rights protection to guarantee legal rights and interests of individuals and businesses.

(People's Daily April 6, 2004)