According to IDC (), market opportunity for business analytics in China is expected to grow 10 percent annually from 2009 to 2013, faster than the average IT market growth of 8 percent. The demand is driven by risk management, compliance mandates, and the desire to adopt business analytics into their operations, said IDC.

On the same day, IBM also announced a west China business unit for its software group and a development lab for the west region that Big Blue has high expectations.

In 2000, the Chinese government launched the western region development strategy to help the under-developed regions catch up with the coastal provinces in eastern China. Driven by stimulus investment, the average annual growth for the past 10 years was 11.6 percent, which was significant to the 370 million people, said IBM.