According to a recent report in the China Daily, the government is promising that when new regulations on government software procurement are issued soon, foreign and domestic companies will be treated equally when buying software.
This move is expected to reduce fears among international vendors that officials will favor home-grown products. The announcement comes after concern last year when it was rumored that Beijing was considering issuing rules requiring government departments to earmark spending for domestically produced software products, a policy aimed at promoting the local sector's development. This was in part due to the large margins commanded by software giant Microsoft which angered Chinese officials, leading to eagerness to promote potential alternatives such as local operating systems based on open-source Linux software.
