Cisco chief executive John Chambers said the company’s total commitments in China – including procurement activities – had amounted to US$8.5 billion (A$9.24 billion) since 2002, a number now expected to expand to US$16 billion over the next five years.

Mr Chambers was outlining a broad range of initiatives in China ranging from heavy investment in education through the rapid expansion of the Cisco Networking Academies program, US$400 million in venture funding for China projects and the establishment of the company’s first “green” technology centre for R&D into sustainable development.

Mr Chambers also signed a memorandum of understanding with Chinese B2B online marketplace Alibaba.com that includes a US$17.5 million investment as a foundation shareholder in Alibaba.com’s upcoming initial public offering.

“Our collaboration with Alibaba Group will play an important role in helping extend our industry-leading SMB solutions effectively into the Chinese market,” Mr Chambers said.

“By combining Cisco's technology leadership with Alibaba Group's community of eCommerce in China, we will help drive market transformation through innovation and bring benefits to SMBs as well as consumers in the Web 2.0 Era,” he said.

Under the terms of the MOU, Cisco and Alibab.com will explore ways to jointly offer collaboration and business management solutions to small and medium businesses (SMBs). Cisco also agreed to cooperate in assisting the Alibaba Group’s market expansion outside of China.

“We look forward to cooperating with Cisco to find ways to bring software services to China's SME's,” Alibaba Group chairman and chairman Jack Ma said.

“China is entering a golden era for enterprise software services and collaborating with Cisco will help us meet our goal of bringing world class technology to China's businesses.”