BEIJING - China's central government agencies have spent more than 41 million yuan ($6.25 million) in purchasing authorized system operation, office and anti-virus software in the country's latest effort to protect intellectual property rights.

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The figure, which was revealed on Monday at a meeting to promote authorized and genuine software in central government agencies, included the procurement of 53,915 software copies by 37 central government organs from October last year to Feb 10, 2011.

Among the agencies included in the initiative are the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Commerce and the General Administration of Press and Publication (GAPP) and the National Copyright Administration (NCA).

The move is part of the Chinese government's efforts to promote authorized software among government agencies nationwide. Meanwhile, the government of Qingdao City in eastern Shandong Province took the lead among local governments by spending more than 76 million yuan in software purchases for government offices.

The NCA and other government agencies jointly issued a circular in 2006 that requires all government bodies to buy only computers with pre-installed genuine operating system software and to allocate funds to buy authorized software.

Central government departments are required to discard all pirated software copies by the end of May. Local governments are required to comply by the end of October.

Yan Xiaohong, GAPP deputy head and NCA vice-director, said that the NCA would cooperate with the ministries of finance, commerce and industry and information technology in checking the campaign's results starting in March.