In June 2006, EMC (EMC) promised to invest US$500 million in China over the coming five years, and the company has now announced new projects in Beijing and Shanghai.

EMC signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Beijing City Government's Information Office to collaborate on the city government's "Digital Beijing" initiatives. Over the next few years, the city of Beijing will collaborate with EMC to build a state-of-the-art information infrastructure that will ultimately house the city's digital assets.

Zhao Fengtong, Vice Mayor of the City of Beijing, said, "The Beijing City Government is committed to the development of a comprehensive and advanced information infrastructure. We are pleased that EMC is investing its technology and expertise in support of the city of Beijing's digital initiatives. Through the adoption of innovative information technologies, we expect to improve the city's efficiency and quality of service for our citizens."

In support of these digital initiatives, EMC will work closely with Beijing's IT specialists to build an information infrastructure based on EMC's portfolio of tiered storage systems and information management software to digitize, index, archive, and repurpose the city's information. In addition, EMC will leverage its existing EMC China Solution Center network and remote-networking capabilities to educate the city's IT employees about EMC's information management and storage capabilities. By the summer of 2008, EMC plans to train 200 senior city information technology professionals to provide support for Beijing's new information infrastructure.

EMC has also unveiled its China R&D Center in Shanghai.

Fan Chenggong, general manager of the EMC China R&D Center, says that the facilities, whose construction was commenced in June 2006, has more than 100 employees and it is estimated that the number will increase to 500 by 2008.

With the addition of EMC's R&D Center, there are now up to 200 R&D centers for international companies in Shanghai.