Fifteen ministries of the Chinese government began to upgrade their Chinese-made office software with the latest edition on Friday, becoming the first users of the new edition of WPS office software.

The ministries include the Ministry of Commerce, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of State Security, People's Daily reported on Friday.

Fei Lin, an official of the State Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, told the newspaper that his experience indicated the WPS outperformed overseas-made office software in document typesetting.

The government began to encourage the use of locally produced software last year in a bid to support the local software sector and protect state information security.

Gao Zhigang, an official of the Procurement Center of the State Council, was quoted by the newspaper as saying more than one third of the Chinese ministries and commissions used Chinese-made software.

The WPS system was the only product which experts said would challenge the overwhelming dominance of the Chinese market by Microsoft Office.

The Chinese government began to purchase WPS Office 2002 in last year's government procurement, becoming the biggest user of the software developed by Kingsoft office software.

The governments of Beijing Municipality, south China's Guangdong Province and east China's Zhejiang Province also used the 2002 edition of the software.

(Xinhua News Agency August 15, 2003)