BEIJING, Jan. 27-- Shenzhen has set its sight on building a national center for software export and outsourcing to strengthen its presence in the worldˇs software industry.

¨The task is to integrate all the possible resources worldwide to enhance the international competitiveness of local software and increase software exports,〃 said Wang Lingling, deputy director general of the Shenzhen Municipal Development and Reform Bureau, who attended the foundation laying ceremony of the second phase of Shenzhen Software Park and Shenzhen Software Building on Wednesday.

Located in the high-tech industrial park in Nanshan District, the software park and building will cover a total area of 150,000 square meters.

Shenzhenˇs software leads the nation and accounts for 13 percent of the cityˇs high-tech output. In 2004, the total output of the cityˇs software was 41.9 billion yuan(US$5.1 billion) and exports totaled US$1.2 billion, twice as the figure for the previous year.

¨More and more Shenzhen software companies are beginning to adopt outsourcing as their business model, and we will provide more technical support to facilitate their work,〃 said Liu Zhongpu, vice director of the high-tech park.

The park is now cooperating with Oracle, IBM and Microsoft to build a public software test platform and technology development laboratory.

The government also tries to promote Shenzhen software companies by linking them with foreign IT giants.

(Source: CRIENGLISH.com)