Ninetowns (NINE) announced that it signed a CNY5.6 million (US$680,000) contract to develop an internal Decision & Support System for the State Administration for Quality Supervision and Inspection and Quarantine of China.

Ninetowns expects to complete this contract in 2005.

The Decision & Support System will be a back-end processing system for the PRC Inspection Administration's internal data collection, queries, analysis and statistical classification for all international trade related information.

Mr. Shuang Wang, Chief Executive Officer of Ninetowns Digital World Trade Holdings Limited, said, "Our latest efforts will be designed to help the PRC Inspection Administration more effectively use the valuable import/export data it maintains on its systems. We expect the data analysis, pattern evaluation and risk profiling will better assist the PRC Inspections Administration in decision-making for future proposals and promulgations of international trade related policies and regulations as even more and more enterprises adopt the electronic filing process."