China will be the first priority in Asia Pacific for International Business Machines Corp next year, its top executive said at a regional executive meeting in Shanghai last week.

"Our first priority is China, India second and South Korea third," said Frank Kern, IBM's Asia Pacific president since April. "This is why I brought our entire Asia Pacific management team into Shanghai to see how dynamic and exciting the Chinese market is."

Although the information structure of the Chinese firms is not as advanced as their foreign counterparts, they appear to be more willing to adopt the latest computer technologies, he said.

"Also many Japanese company executives told me that they want to install the latest technologies in their new manufacturing facilities in China, world's fast growing region, even better than their existing infrastructure in their home offices," said Kern, who is based in Tokyo.

Big Blue might also benefit from the recent joint efforts of China, Japan and South Korea governments and industry groups to support Linux, which is seen to grow 24 percent annually against a 12 percent growth for Mic-rosoft's Windows, and is expected to replace Windows.

The Japan IT Services Association, the China Software Industry Association and the Federation of Korean Information Industries will form working groups to support organizations and businesses adopting Linux, an open-source operating system.

They have also recommended that each government should use software based on it.

This could prove to be a boom for IBM, an ardent supporter of Linux.

"In the server system market, we see the urgent demand for Linux from customers," Kern said. "The momentum for Linux is growing rapidly in the world, just like China's economic growth."

IBM has set up two Linux-related research centers and is working with Chinese IT authorities and domestic application software firms in Guangdong Province and Beijing this year.

It has also signed cooperation deals with Hainan Province and Chengdu of Sichu-an Province to develop the Linux software industry.

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