SmartForce, the world's largest e-learning company, has started its march toward China's web education market with an announcement Wednesday of its strategic cooperation with northeast China's Dongruan Group.

"The market potential of China for e-learning is huge, considering the country's pending WTO entry and the fact that it's one of world's most vigorous economic region," said Greg Priest, president of SmartForce.

According to Priest, the company aims at providing first-class e-learning service for both China's enterprises and individuals.

Some of the education software jointly developed by the two has already passed test-run and been put to use in Dongruan Institute of Information Technology in Dalian, northeast China.

Liu Jiren, chairman of the Dongruan Group, believed that the further spreading of the Internet in China and the closer exchange with outside world would put professional training high on the agenda of both domestic enterprises and individuals.

Worldwide, SmartForce has 3,000 enterprise users and provides 1,400 courses in the subjects of business communications, marketing, management, and for IT technological certification.

Taking IT promotion as its core business, Dongruan Group has had its software used in several thousand large or medium-sized enterprises and the country's infrastructure construction.

( November 8, 2001)