A Tentative View on GIS Software Development in China.

As the most populated country on Earth, China has experienced a rapid growth in the GIS industry in the last decade. The development of made-in-China GIS software has been listed as the most important initiative in the Chinese information technology industry by the central government, aiming to gain a "fair share" in the potentially enormous domestic GIS market, where the adoption of international software is dominant. This paper reports the authors' observations on domestic GIS software development in China in the past years. The progress in software research and development and the special nature of Chinese GIS software are reviewed. Based on this review, an attempt is made to compare Chinese and international GIS software packages. The potential impact on the Chinese GIS software market is also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]