In an effort to curb software piracy, the Chinese government will require all large State-owned enterprises to begin using genuine software this year, Vice-Premier Wu Yi said yesterday.

The headquarters of the major 157 SOEs, and their large subsidiaries, will follow the lead of most other large enterprises supervised by the central government, which began using genuine copies of software last year, Wu said.
 

Vice-Premier Wu Yi delivers a speech at the China High-Level Forum on IPR Protection 2007 in Beijing yesterday. [Xinhua]

"There are many participants from large SOEs and I want to tell you: you must pay close attention to this," Wu said at an international forum on intellectual property rights (IPR) protection.

She added that other State-owned enterprises and foreign or private companies should also consider using legal software.

Nine Chinese ministries met earlier this year to discuss how to promote the use of genuine copies of software by State-owned companies.

Last year, the Chinese government spent 150 million yuan on genuine software, which it began requiring in 2002.

The government has also told personal computer makers to only sell computers with genuine copies of operating systems. This prompted four domestic computer makers, including the top three in the market, to sign $570 million worth of contracts with Microsoft last year.

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