BEIJING -- China's Ministry of Information Industry (MII) is starting to work to achieve the IT goals set out in the country's 11th five-year plan, which was approved last week by the National People's Congress.

Five-year plans, a legacy of the days when China was a purely centralized society, outline the government's economic and social development policy goals. The new plan covers the period from this year through 2010.

The high-tech objectives in the plan include developing semiconductor manufacturing technology for advanced systems, building high- performance computing systems and deploying a nationwide digital TV network. The MII said that this year, it will increase funding for the Chinese semiconductor industry and promote further development of Linux and applications based on the open-source operating system. The ministry also plans to provide more funding for development and deployment of advanced wireless technologies such as wireless broadband networks.

Design firm charged with pirating software

SINGAPORE -- The Singapore Police Force has charged PDM International Pte. Ltd., an interior design company, with using 51 copies of pirated software from Adobe Systems Inc., Autodesk Inc. and Microsoft Corp. "to obtain a commercial advantage." PDM is the first company in Singapore to be charged with using unlicensed software since the country's Copyright Act was amended at the start of last year to make large-scale copyright infringement by businesses a criminal offense. The company faces fines of up to 20,000 Singapore dollars (US$12,356). A receptionist who answered the phone at PDM last week said the company wouldn't comment about the piracy charges.