Intel has teamed up with its China distributor Artel Solutions Group Holdings to sell information technology (IT) solutions to mainland schools, and capitalise on Beijing's e-education push.
Intel's solution services unit and Artel have formed an alliance with Guangzhou-based education software developer Unisoft and Canadian multimedia company Warp Networks.
The Education Solution Alliance will provide low-cost solutions, from PC hardware to servers and education software tailor-made for primary and secondary schools in second and third-tier mainland cities.
Under a two-year-old programme known as Xiao Xiao Tong (every school connected to the Internet), the central government aims to have 90 per cent of China's schools computerised and linked to the Internet by 2010.
Each school will have at least one computer room with 50 PCs installed, suggesting about 27 million PCs will be needed in the next seven years.
The Ministry of Education said only 26,000 schools had computer rooms at the end of last year, and most were in more affluent regions.