Microsoft, the global software giant, seeks to further enlarge its market in western China by building a creative center in Shaanxi province, as indicated by a memorandum signed on Wednesday.

A ceremony was held on Wednesday morning in Xi'an, the capital of Shaanxi, to mark the signing of a strategic cooperation memorandum of understanding between Microsoft (China) Co. Ltd and Shaanxi Xixian New Area development and construction administrative committee.

According to the memorandum, Microsoft will establish a creative center; software service outsourcing talent training base; technology practice center; CityNext, a kind of smart city with Microsoft technology; and a government education official cloud platform in Xixian New Area.

Sandy Gupta, chief technology officer of Microsoft China, said that in the following three years, Microsoft would implement deep cooperation with Xixian New Area in the fields of technology promotion, traditional business transformation and innovation, personal training, new ventures supporting and construction of smart city.

Microsoft plans to technologically support some 60 newly-established software companies in Xixian New Area in the next three years, in order to promote the development of the newly established firms engaged in software development and Internet services, Gupta said.

The smart city program is another key project for the cooperation between Xixian New Area and Microsoft, in which Xixian New Area will use the newest cloud technology system created by Microsoft and reference Microsoft's CityNext model to build a smart urban infrastructure and core platform.

Xixian New Area, with a planned area of 272 sq km between Xi'an and Xianyang cities, is a key area for China's national strategic plan of West Development, and the information industry is one of the area's pillar industries. With approval by the central government in February 2012, the area has witnessed high-speed development in the past year with a number of international enterprises such as Microsoft expressing interest in the area.