China Standard Software Co, a homegrown operating system and office software developer, said yesterday its shareholders injected 200 million yuan (US$29.4 million) into the firm.

The capital injection, the biggest in the domestic software industry in recent years, is expected to help Shanghai-based China Standard's work on a more advanced Linux system and office suite software, and hopefully break the monopoly of overseas giants.

The company's shareholders, including China Electronics Technology Group Corp and East-China Institute of Computer Technology, increased their stake to boost China Standard's registered capital to 250 million yuan from 50 million yuan.

"The support, especially in capital, will help the homegrown software industry grow strong and competitive," China Standard said in a statement.

China will support three sectors in the information technology sector, such as core electronic components, advanced chips and software development, industry insiders said.

China Standard researches mainly on the Linux system for personal computers and servers, as well as office work process software.

Overseas giants still dominate the domestic market. For example, more than 90 percent of PCs sold in China are installed with Microsoft's Windows software.

In 2007, the revenue of China's software market totaled 583.4 billion yuan in 2007.

(Shanghai Daily December 11, 2008)