Microsoft plans to invest ”tens of millions” of dollars in developing China’s fledgling software industry, a leading executive at the American software giant said on Thursday.
”Microsoft continues to actively support the development of China’s software industry,” Timothy Chen, president of Microsoft China, told a conference in Beijing.
His remarks follow the company’s announcement in June 2002 that it would invest $750-million over the next three years in China.
Microsoft has had a hard time penetrating the Chinese market because pirated copies of its software products are widely available for just over one US dollar a CD-ROM.
It has also suffered because the government, which accounts for over 40% of software purchases in China, has openly declared a preference for homegrown software.
Chen became president of Microsoft in China last year, reportedly because of his connections with the government.
However, the large majority of lucrative contracts to upgrade government networks awarded recently have still mainly gone to domestic players such as UFsoft, Chinasoft and Kingsoft. – Sapa-AFP