Zhongguancun rail transit industry development forum was held fervently, and the first international scale innovation and entrepreneurship competition in the field of Beijing rail transit was officially launched today in Fengtai Park of Zhongguancun! The competition focuses on the whole life cycle of investment, construction, operation and other industries. More than 200 top technical teams and enterprises from around the world will gather in Zhongguancun to compete on the same stage; all parties involved in the production, study, research, finance and application of rail transit will jointly study and plan industrial innovation, so as to promote the sustainable development of cutting-edge industry of Beijing rail transit.

This morning, the launching ceremony of 2021 Zhongguancun Rail Transit Industry Development Forum and International Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition with the theme of “giving play to the leading role of innovation and enjoying the future with wisdom” of the series of activities of 2021 Zhongguancun Forum was officially held in Fengtai Park, Zhongguancun.

As one of the activities of 2021 Zhongguancun Forum into the 16 districts, this activity is guided by Beijing Municipal Science and Technology Commission, Zhongguancun Management Committee, Fengtai District People’s Government of Beijing, China Railway Society, China Intelligent Transportation Systems Association, China Association of Metros, and Zhongguancun Development Group Limited by Share Ltd.; is hosted by Zhongguancun Fengtai Park Management Committee and Beijing Zhongguancun Science and Technology Service Company, and jointly undertaken by Beijing Zhongguancun Rail Transit Industry Development Co., Ltd. and other units. The activity is strongly supported by Beijing Jiaotong University, Southwest Jiaotong University, Fengtai District Committee Organization Department, Zhongguancun Modern Transportation Special Committee, Zhongguancun Entrepreneurship Ecological Promotion Association, China Academy of Railway Sciences, China Railway Materials Group Corporation, Traffic Control Technology Co., Ltd., CoStone Investment, Urban Rail Innovation Network Center, Beijing Rural Commercial Bank, China CITIC Bank, Beijing Dejun Company and other units.

Liu Hang, the second-level inspector of Beijing Municipal Science and Technology Commission and Zhongguancun Management Committee, Zhang Xin, member of the Standing Committee of Beijing Fengtai District Committee and deputy head of the District, and Jia Yiwei, deputy general manager of Zhongguancun Development Group attended the activity and delivered speeches. Ding Shukui, president of Beijing Collaborative Innovation Railway Transportation Research Institute Co., Ltd., Zhang Zhihui, vice president and chief engineer of China Railway Signal & Communication Corporation Limited, Wang Wei, CEO of Traffic Control Technology Co., Ltd., Denice Margan, vice president of CargoBeamer International AG in Germany, Romain LEGROS, founder and president of the company Geoflex in France, and other industry experts and business representatives gave lectures on the development of the rail transit industry.

The competition is the first international-scale innovation and entrepreneurship activity in the field of Beijing rail transit, which focuses on the whole life cycle of the rail transit industry, including investment, construction and operation, and covers new technologies, products and processes applied to planning and design, construction, vehicle manufacturing and operation services, as well as application demonstration projects integrating 5G, artificial intelligence and blockchain technologies. More than 200 top technical teams and enterprises from around the world will gather in Zhongguancun to compete on the same stage. This activity will become the launching and display platform of innovative and integrated products in the rail transit field, and will also promote the cooperation of all parties to jointly study and plan the innovation and development of the industry.

In his speech, inspector Liu Hang introduced the development of Zhongguancun Demonstration Zone, the development of the rail transit industry and the measures taken by Zhongguancun to promote the rail transit industry.

In 2020, Zhongguancun had 27,000 high-tech enterprises, with a total revenue of 7.24 trillion yuan; 40 newly listed companies, and a total of 406 listed companies; more than 140,000 valid enterprise invention patents, and up to 11,965 standards formulated.

The competition provides a new platform for innovators and entrepreneurs in the field of rail transit, which will bring new opportunities to the development of rail transit industry. Beijing Municipal Commission of Science and Technology and Zhongguancun Management Committee will, as always, carry out policy innovation, explore and study the “early and pilot implementation” policy, and provide high-quality external development conditions, to promote the construction of Zhongguancun characteristic industrial park and the development of specialized industrial promotion service agencies.

In his speech, vice district director Zhang Xin mentioned that Fengtai has become an important node of “Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei on the track” under the background of the current coordinated development of Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei. As one of the leading clusters of rail transit industry in China, Fengtai District has a large industrial scale, a complete industrial chain and strong innovation ability. Zhongguancun Fengtai Park alone has gathered 4 national-level R&D institutions, 16 municipal-level R&D institutions, and more than 150 key rail transit enterprises, covering the whole industrial chain from planning, design, consulting to engineering construction, equipment manufacturing and operation value-added services, which has achieved a revenue scale of over 100 billion yuan for five consecutive years since 2015, with an average annual growth rate of 12%, and an estimated revenue of more than 230 billion yuan in 2020.

Fengtai plans to build the competition into a regular event held once a year, and make it a display platform for advanced technologies and products and services, so as to promote the demonstration and application of a batch of new technologies, new products and new processes in the field of rail transit. Fengtai will continuously discover and cultivate “good innovative seedlings” through the competition carrier, and look for the new increment of rail transit industry in Fengtai District, to form new advantages for future development and promote the great integration, opening, cooperation and development of rail transit industry, and will provide favorable policy support and high-quality government affairs service.

Jia Yiwei, deputy general manager, said in his speech that as one of the member units of the Organizing Committee Office of Zhongguancun forum, Zhongguancun Development Group Limited by Share Ltd. will continue to do a good job in the organization and preparation of Zhongguancun Forum, and build the forum into an international scientific and technological innovation exchange and cooperation platform integrating scientific and technological exchanges and the display, distribution and trading of innovative achievements. Zhongguancun Development Group Limited by Share Ltd. and its subsidiaries including Zhongguancun Rail Transit Company, Exhibition Company and Zhiku Talent Company participated in the planning, organization and implementation of this activity, looking for more “golden seed” enterprises and projects with innovative gene, and using Zhongguancun Science and Technology Service Company’s “full-cycle, butler-style and one-stop” service ability, to enable the whole process of the activity.

Rail transit science and technology independently researched and developed has developed rapidly, and the “critical” technology remains to be solved

Currently, the global rail transit industry has entered a period of rapid development. A new round of technologies represented by information network, intelligent manufacturing, new energy and new materials is accelerating the iteration and upgrading of the rail transit industry. Urban rail transit is also developing from a single subway mode to subway, light rail, monorail, urban fast rail, modern tram, magnetic levitation and other systems.

China is the world’s largest market for rail transit construction and service, and currently rail transit is one of the industries with the strongest innovative competitiveness, the most urgent market demand and the most obvious industrial driving effect in China. At present, China’s high-speed rail mileage accounts for more than two-thirds of the world’s high-speed rail operating mileage, ranking first in the world. It is expected that by 2025, 50 cities on the Chinese mainland will have opened and operated urban rail transit, with an operating mileage of more than 15,000km. It is learned that the total scale of urban rail transit in Beijing is expected to reach 1023 kilometers in 2022, which is equivalent to the distance between Beijing and Shanghai. By 2035, Beijing will have a rail transit network of 2,500km which is equivalent to the distance from Beijing to Hainan, carrying more than 10 million passengers a day on average.

During his inspection of the Beijing-Zhangjiakou High-speed Railway at the beginning of this year, General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out that a successful example of China’s independent innovation is the high-speed railway, which has developed from scratch, from introduction, digestion and absorption to innovation and then to independent innovation, and is now leading the world. During the epidemic period, through the linkage of train control technology and passenger flow monitoring technology, real-time dynamic dispatching and additional operating of trains, the train’s full load rate was controlled to the maximum extent, which effectively responded to the passenger flow pressure and ensured the safety of passengers in the capital. For example, on the Beijing Subway Changping Line, the minimum interval between morning rush hours was shortened from 3 minutes and 40 seconds to 2 minutes, and the train’s full load rate was dropped by about 45%. The technology to achieve this series of security guarantees mainly comes from two companies in Fengtai Park of Zhongguancun, namely China Railway Signal & Communication Corporation Limited and Traffic Control Technology Co., Ltd. China Railway Signal & Communication Corporation Limited has more than 90% of the market for high-speed trains running at speeds above 300km per hour.

While ushering in the historical opportunity, the development of rail transit industry is also faced with many challenges, and a series of critical technologies need to be broken through urgently, such as key technologies in the fields of special chips, operating systems and industrial design software which are still monopolized by foreign enterprises. In order to further enliven the atmosphere of innovation and entrepreneurship in the field of rail transit, the 2021 Zhongguancun Rail Transit International Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition is specially organized, which will discover a batch of innovative “good seedlings”, improve and extend the construction of rail transit industry chain, and promote the demonstration and application of a batch of new technologies, new products and new processes in the field of rail transit.

Zhongguancun Fengtai Park will be built into a leading rail transit industry innovation center in the country

Xu Yuanyuan, deputy director of Fengtai Park Management Committee, told reporters that: At present, Fengtai Park has gathered nearly 150 key rail transit enterprises, covering the whole industrial chain from planning, design, consulting to engineering construction, equipment manufacturing and operation value-added services, achieving a revenue scale of 100 billion yuan for five consecutive years from 2015, with an average annual growth rate of 12%, and achieving the expected revenue of 230 billion yuan in 2020. At the same time, Beijing Jiaotong University and Fengtai District People’s Government signed a cooperation agreement on March 23 to jointly build a “rail transit innovation base” in Fengtai Park of Zhongguancun, strive to solve the “critical” technologies of the industry, and focus on strengthening basic research and application research, which marks a substantial breakthrough has been made in the rail transit innovation chain with the collaboration between “government, production, learning, research and application” in Fengtai Park, Zhongguancun.

Next, Fengtai will take the optimization of business environment as the government’s primary task to promote the development of industrial clusters. “As long as there is a good environment, there is no need to worry about talent.” Government staff will strengthen their sense of service, adhere to the service spirit of “always responding to requests and not disturbing people when there is nothing to do”, provide more comprehensive services to enterprises, simplify examination and approval, cut taxes and fees, and increase the stickiness between enterprises and the government. It is expected that by 2022, Fengtai Park in Zhongguancun will become a global rail transit innovation center and industrial development demonstration highland.