National Taiwan University is teaming up with a local company to launch a global Chinese language learning network.

The president of National Taiwan University Lee Si-chen announced the university's joint venture with TutorABC, on Thursday.

Lee said the university would provide faculty, teaching materials, and speech recognition technology. TutorABC, on the other hand, will provide an interactive learning platform.

In the initial stages, the system, (called NTUtorMing) will target learners in the United States and Europe. But eventually the system will be available anytime, anywhere.

It is estimated that by 2010 there will be over 100 million non-native learners of Chinese.