Tim Wang's eLearning Blog

Steve Ballmer has signed a memorandum with China’s Ministry of Information Industry (MII) to help the Chinese government with the economic development in China’s rural areas.

"Microsoft will work closely with MII to reduce the digital divide and increase informatization in China’s rural communities." - Steve Ballmer

In this memorandum, Steve has promised that Microsoft will use technology to provide career training to thousands of educators in non-developed areas and will help the Chinese government to deliver distance education to hundreds thousands of students in the country sides. This echoes the recent polices on making rural development a priority.

Microsoft has also promised to train more than 70,000 software engineers through a combination of classroom instruction and distance learning. This deal seems to be a formal response to the high-profile April visit by Chinese President Hu Jintao to Microsoft’s headquarters in Redmond. The Chinese government has promised to further enforce all government organizations use copy-righted software and strengthening the regulations on software piracy. Not to mention, Lenovo (the Chinese company who acquired IBM personal computer division) just signed a $1.2 billion deal with Microsoft.