The government of the Macao Special Administrative Region has launched a fund valued 150 million patacas (US$18.75 million) to boost school IT education, local media reported Wednesday.

Macao Daily News, the leading local Chinese-language newspaper, reported that the Education and Youth Affairs Bureau has set up the three-year funding scheme with the aid of the non-governmental Macao Foundation.

Some 13 local schools have received fund in the academic year of 2007/2008 to improve their IT educational infrastructure, to enhance IT training and to purchase IT hardware and equipment, according to the newspaper.

Macao, a city with a population of 520,000, has some 60,000 elementary and primary school students.

(Xinhua News Agency September 5, 2007)