Came across this article yesterday, and had a brief discussion in the evening class - it dawned on me that it's not just Beijing would accept Microsoft's offer, so did a council in the UK and Paris according to our lecturer... Not very precise description, anyway, you got the idea.
Below is the article from FT.com.
Beijing city buys Microsoft software
By Mure Dickie in Beijing
Published: February 22 2005
MicrosoftThe Beijing city government has quietly made substantial purchases of software from Microsoft after it cancelled a controversial Rmb29m ($3.5m) order for the US company's Office suite and Windows operating system late last year, according to municipal officials and industry executives.
The decision by the Chinese capital to push through the purchase of Office and Windows products in spite of widespread local opposition is a boost for Microsoft, which has worked hard to fend off competition from lower-cost Chinese software rivals.
However, the municipal government's refusal to make public any information about the purchases raises serious questions about its handling of the procurement process. Under China's Law on Government Procurement, big government purchases must be "open and transparent".
The city's finance department and its "Office of Informatisation" declined on Tuesday to give details of Beijing's software spending since the cancellation of the tender won by the US company last year.
The tender for Microsoft software was scrapped after local software companies complained it had been mishandled and local commentators criticised it for not giving enough support to local vendors.
However, a municipal official with knowledge of its technology policy said the city bought Microsoft's products anyway and that its purchases from the US company "were greater than those made from domestic vendors".
A manager at a large Chinese software company said it had also heard from customers in the municipal government that it had gone ahead with purchases from Microsoft.
The Beijing Informatisation Office declined on Tuesday to comment on whether the software purchases from Microsoft were handled according to law.
The purchases could reignite debate about the degree to which state software procurement should favour local suppliers.
The cancellation of the Microsoft order last year had been seen as an important victory for supporters of the local industry.
Li Wuqiang, then an official at the Ministry of Science and Technology, had heightened the pressure on Beijing officials by issuing a high-profile denunciation of the "many" local governments that ignored "national interest and security" by buying foreign software.
The municipal official with knowledge of IT issues said the decision to buy from Microsoft reflected in part the difficulty of introducing local software in time to meet a central government deadline for the the city government to stop using pirated software.
Microsoft declined to give details of Beijing city purchases. "We appreciate and support the Beijing government's decision to use legal software including Microsoft's products within its government entities," the company said.
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