A Sino-German software technology research institute opened Monday in Beijing, the first research institute jointly launched with a foreign government in China.

The institute, located in the Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, will focus its research on software and mobile communication technologies, with topics from China's national high-technology research program, "Program 863", and research projects in Germany and other European Union countries.

The Chinese and German experts who staff the institute are also allowed to offer courses for postgraduate and Ph.D. students in the university.

China's Ministry of Science and Technology signed agreements in 2002 with Germany's Federal Ministry of Education and Research on joint research programs on information and communication technology with centers in Beijing and Berlin.

China and Germany each own 50 percent of the institute. The institute in Berlin is under construction.

(Xinhua News Agency October 14, 2003)