A Sino-Japanese software development joint venture was established here Wednesday, which is expected to become China's largest processing base of software exports to Japan by 2003.

   The 20-million-U.S. dollar Shanghai Sakura Information System Co., Ltd. is jointly set up between Shanghai's Top Group and a group of Japanese companies including Hitachi and Toshiba. The two sides having an equal share in the new company. The first phase investment is 10 million U.S. dollars.

   Company sources said by the year 2003 the joint venture is expected to have a staff of 1,000 and process 37.5 million U.S. dollars worth of software for export.

   Shanghai has underlined information technology as a primary industry and aims to lead other Chinese cities in software exports, said Zhu Xiaoming, director of the municipal commission of foreign trade and economic cooperation.

   The metropolis has set this year's software export at 100 million U.S. dollars, nearly double that of last year. Its target for 2005 is 500 to 600 million U.S. dollars out of a software revenue of 30 billion yuan (3.6 billion U.S. dollars), the official said.

   Top Group, set up nine years ago, is a high-tech company mainly engaged in value-added information services. Its sales last year reached 2.1 billion yuan (253 million U.S. dollars).