Ten Chinese technology service providers have jointly signed a self-discipline convention on anti-virus services in China.

The ten parties are China Mobile, China Unicom, China Telecom, Tencent, Venus Info Tech Inc., NSFocus Information Technology, Topsec, Qihoo, Baidu and China Internet Network Information Center. The main purpose of the alliance is to create a communication platform among the companies so they can more readily address and solve virus-related issues.

Xi Guohua, vice minister of China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, said at the ceremony this week that with 320 million Internet users, China has the most users of any country in the world. Xi stated that despite the current international financial crisis, Chinese Internet companies are maintaining momentum for growth. He suggested that the anti-virus alliance continue to put forward related proposals to decision makers, enhance information sharing and cooperation among the alliance members.