Microsoft recently signed a strategic cooperation agreement with the municipal government of Wuxi, Jiangsu province, announcing that the company will invest CNY300 million to build a new technical support center in the city over the next three years.

Under the agreement, Microsoft Asia Pacific's global technical support center will invest CNY300 million in Wuxi in the next three years to enhance its technical support and services to customers and partners in China. Meanwhile, Microsoft will implement a broad cooperation with Wuxi government in various sectors, including software industry, intelligent city construction, cloud computing applications, and intellectual property rights protection.

Based on the planning of Microsoft, the Wuxi center will not only provide Chinese-language support, but also will be responsible for certain non-spoken English services. In the future, it may become Microsoft's cloud support center.

Established in August 2007, Microsoft Asia Pacific global technical support center is the combination of the former global technical support centers in Greater China and Asia Pacific. At present, it provides product services and technical supports of hundreds of Microsoft products to personal users, developers, IT professionals, cooperating partners, and enterprise users. The Wuxi center is the second base of Microsoft Asia Pacific global technical support center and the first one was established in Shanghai, which is the headquarters. In addition, Microsoft Asia Pacific global technical support center has major sites in South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, and Australia.

According to Barbara Gordon, Microsoft's vice president, the new center represents Microsoft's commitment to China, which has become the world's biggest personal computer and mobile phone markets.