The city of Changchun plans to spend about 2.8 billion yuan ($430 million) on China's first high-speed-train R&D center to help it shore up its already strong position in the railway industry.
An initial 800 million yuan will be used for high-speed-train production lines and testing facilities.
The city already has some of China's high-speed train manufacturing, R&D and maintenance facilities.
The railway car industry is considered a priority in the city government's 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-2015), which was published recently.
About 10 billion yuan will be set aside for building an industrial park for railway industry facilities.
"Our goal is to build Changchun into a global R&D, production and export center for railway cars and urban trains," said Cui Jie, the city's mayor.
The city's railway car industry is expected to generate 100 billion yuan ($15.4 billion) in industrial output by 2015, according to Xiao Wanming, vice-mayor.
Annual production of high-speed trains is expected to reach 5,000 units in the next five years, Xiao added.
The Changchun Railway Vehicle Co Ltd, a leader in the field, has its headquarters in Changchun, which has a good shot at building a national railway car center. It could cover everything from manufacturing and components, to maintenance and after-sales service, to R&D and testing.
With passenger trains, high-speed trains, and urban trains all in its portfolio, the Changchun company is in fact the nation's largest railway car manufacturer, and the city is seen as the cradle of China's urban train industry.
In the passenger trains field the company already accounts for more than half the domestic market.
And when it comes to the urban trains, the figure goes up to around 80 percent.
Not to mention the fact that the company is currently one of only two high-speed train providers in China.
Recent years have brought development opportunities for the railway industry, as central government polices began to recognize the sector and subway expansions across the country added growth.
To seize these opportunities and reinforce the city's lead in this industry, authorities are taking a close look at industrial parks.
The new development has a planned area of 21.5 square kilometers and is designed as a national center for railway car and urban train R&D, manufacturing and exports.
Changchun Railway Vehicles has already spent 3 billion yuan on 14 projects, all within the development zone.
One of these involves the manufacturing of trains with an average speed of 300 km per hour.
The others are for railway car components such as braking systems, gears, seats and air vents.
There are 49 railway car part manufacturers, 28 of which signed on in late January, pledging a total of 5.15 billion yuan in investment. They expect a total output of 10 billion yuan after construction of facilities is complete.
（From ChinaDaily: http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/cndy/2011-06/01/content_12619247.htm）