Beijing has ordered thousands of county-level governments on the mainland to only use genuine and authorised computer software by the end of next year.
The move will help ease international pressure over intellectual property rights (IPR) infringements on the mainland and improve the nation's image, Yan Xiaohong, deputy director of the General Administration of Press and Publication and deputy director of the National Copyright Administration, told a press conference yesterday.
Copyrighted software has been installed in central government offices since the end of May last year while provincial-level departments fell into line by June 30 this year. However, many local governments - including more than two-thirds of the mainland's 500 or so city governments and more than three-quarters of its 2,800 county-level governments - had yet to be cleared of using pirated software, Yan said.
Government bodies that are still using counterfeit software have been asked to buy genuine software through an official website launched in May last year.
Li Baorong, deputy director of the State Council's Government Offices Administration, said: 'The website was originally created for the central government bodies in Beijing and now growing numbers of local governments are buying legitimate software through it.'
Li said the website stocks more than 1,300 items of software from 162 domestic and overseas brands that are available to all government departments and agencies. The buyers could make orders and upgrade and maintain software through the website, and also find cheap deals on Oracle, Microsoft and Kingsoft software.