China Mobile Communications Corporation (CMCC), the world’s largest mobile network operator, and the Symbian Foundation has announced "an agreement to collaborate on a series of key initiatives to improve the mobile ecosystem in China and to stimulate the development of the market for CCMC’s locally developed 3G network standard, TD-SCDMA". There's also a new Symbian Chinese website for locals to check out. Some extracts from the press release below.

From the press release:

"The first partnership initiative is the simplification of Symbian Signed testing services for developers submitting applications to CMCC’s newly launched application store, Mobile Market. The inclusion of Symbian Signed services will allow CMCC to provide mobile developers with a one-stop facility for testing, signing and publishing their Symbian-based applications. Currently, more than 50% of Mobile Market’s 2,000 applications are based on the Symbian platform. Mobile Market will also support applications published via Symbian’s new application publishing programme, Horizon.

Alongside this partnership, Symbian recently launched a Chinese version of its website to promote and support the adoption of the Symbian platform in the region: www.symbian.org/cn. The foundation has also laid out plans to establish an office and local operation in Beijing, further demonstrating Symbian’s growing investment in China."