KUNMING -- Microsoft has teamed up with southwest China's Yunnan Province to boost software innovation and foster local IT talent.

The two sides announced the launching of an information technology (IT) academy, an innovation center and the research and development (R&D) of minor language software on Wednesday in Kunming, capital of Yunnan Province.

Orlando Ayala, Microsoft senior vice president, told a press conference here that the corporation will help build a platform to cultivate the spirit of innovation to improve the competence and capabilities of Chinese and South Asian talent.

The IT school will be built by Microsoft and Yunnan University, offering a four-year college education with a full-time diploma, aimed at training more IT graduates in southwest China and South Asia, Ayala said.

The minor language software will cover 18 languages including Thai, Hindi and Malay to boost exchange among Chinese and Southeast Asian students who are studying in Yunnan.

Microsoft expects its minor language software to stimulate high-tech education, turning Yunnan into a new flourishing power in the Chinese software industry.

Microsoft's IT advantages will enhance the sense of innovation in Yunnan, so as to realize industrial transformation, Ayala said.

Ayala, also the software giant's chairman of emerging markets, mentioned the potential of Yunnan's role in terms of collaboration between China and South Asia, with its positional advantages and abundant resources.

The two sides reached a plan last year to establish cooperation in sectors such as IT construction, software industry, talent training and technological communication.

From 2006 to 2010, China's 11th five-year plan period, Yunnan's trade volume with South Asian countries totaled 3.13 billion U.S. dollars, with an average yearly growth of 34 percent, which stood at 1 billion U.S. dollars in 2011, according to data from Yunnan's commerce authority. Enditem