Foreign software equally treated in government procurement: official

 BEIJING, July 17 (Xinhua) -- A senior Chinese copyright official said on Tuesday that foreign providers received equal treatment during a massive government procurement¹ of licensed² software.

From late 2010, the Chinese central and provincial³ governments had spend more than 1 billion yuan (156.9 million U.S. dollars) on 158,823 operating system licenses⁴, 506,693 copies of office software, plus anti-virus and other special-purpose software in a national anti-piracy campaign which ran till the end of June.

The campaign did not give preference to domestic software providers, said Yan Xiaohong, deputy director of the National Copyright Administration, adding that Chinese and foreign companies took similar shares in the project.

Yan said that with regards to operation systems, foreign companies have a notable larger market share, while Chinese domestic firms took about two-thirds of the office applications but still earned less than their foreign counterparts due to lower pricing.

Foreign software companies are encouraged to sell their products in China and are protected under Chinese law, said Yan.

Yan also reviewed the progress of domestic-made software.

The anti-piracy campaign means a lot to the environment of intellectual property protection and brought a huge market for both domestic and foreign companies, said Yan.

The gross income of China's software sector⁵ topped 1.8 trillion yuan in 2011, accounting⁶ about 15 percent of the global market.

1 procurement   

n.采购；获得

参考例句：

• He is in charge of the procurement of materials.他负责物资的采购。
• More and more,human food procurement came to have a dominant effect on their evolution.人类获取食物愈来愈显著地影响到人类的进化。

2 licensed   

adj.得到许可的v.许可，颁发执照(license的过去式和过去分词)

参考例句：

• The new drug has not yet been licensed in the US. 这种新药尚未在美国获得许可。
• Is that gun licensed? 那支枪有持枪执照吗？

3 provincial   

adj.省的，地方的；n．外省人，乡下人

参考例句：

• City dwellers think country folk have provincial attitudes.城里人以为乡下人思想迂腐。
• Two leading cadres came down from the provincial capital yesterday.昨天从省里下来了两位领导干部。

4 licenses   

n.执照( license的名词复数 )v.批准，许可，颁发执照( license的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• Drivers have ten days' grace to renew their licenses. 驾驶员更换执照有10天的宽限期。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• Jewish firms couldn't get import or export licenses or raw materials. 犹太人的企业得不到进出口许可证或原料。 来自辞典例句

5 sector   

n.部门，部分；防御地段，防区；扇形

参考例句：

• The export sector will aid the economic recovery. 出口产业将促进经济复苏。
• The enemy have attacked the British sector.敌人已进攻英国防区。

6 accounting   

n.会计，会计学，借贷对照表

参考例句：

• A job fell vacant in the accounting department.财会部出现了一个空缺。
• There's an accounting error in this entry.这笔账目里有差错。