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Innovation Creates a Better World

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Jia Limin, Director, Traffic Intelligent Systems and Security Research Center, Beijing Jiaotong University.[Photo/China.com.cn]

Name: Jia Limin, Director, Traffic Intelligent Systems and Security Research Center, Beijing Jiaotong University

Title: Innovation Creates a Better World

Full Text:

Ladies and gentlemen,

The Continental Silk Road was first trodden and the Maritime Silk Road first sailed more than 2,100 years ago during the Western Han Dynasty, and prospered during the Tang and Song dynasties. The Silk Road routes bridged the three continents of Europe, Asia, and Africa, and the Pacific and Indian oceans, greatly facilitating trade and cultural exchanges, thus toform the Silk Road spirit of peace and cooperation, openness and inclusiveness, and mutual learning and benefit.

It was along the Silk Road routes that China's outstanding technological innovations, such as iron smelting, papermaking, farming, marine navigation, and making gunpowder, spread westwards to Central and Western Asia, Arab countries, and eventually to Europein whichthe industrial development was triggered. The resultant curiosity about the Orient spurred hordes of European explorers to voyage across oceans and eventually discover the new continent of America. The civilization of Europe, Arab countries, and India also spread to the East via the Silk Road routes, so bringing about diversification and innovative development of the cultures of East Asia. The Silk Road has thus made indelible contributions to the progress of the world's civilizations, cultures, and religions as well as to the formation of racial and regional patterns.

Upon entering the new era characterized by peace, development, and win-win cooperation, to tackle the challenges facing human subsistence and development Chinese President Xi Jinping proposed in 2013 the Belt and Road Initiative. The Chinese government accordingly issued the Vision and Actions on Jointly Building the Silk Road Economic Belt and 21st-Century Maritime Silk Road.

The initiative is expected to invigorate and revitalize the ancient Silk Road, bring economic prosperity to countries along the Belt and Road through regional economic cooperation, strengthen exchanges and mutual learning between different civilizations, and draw Asian, European, and African countries closer, so to bring mutually beneficial cooperation to a new high. It is thus a great undertaking that will promote world peace and development and benefit people the world over.

Through this epoch-making initiative, China, a country with 5,000-year-long uninterrupted civilization and also notable for its contemporary peaceful and rapid development, is willing to work together with nations throughout the world to create for humankind a community of shared future, explore a new model of global governance, and promote peaceful development and equality among different peoples.

In implementing the initiative, the key element is indeed the "Road," or an efficient transportation that can facilitate interconnectivity among goods, people, finance, and information. Complete infrastructure and a comprehensive transportation system in the form of high efficient railways, therefore, are vital for people in countries along the Belt and Road to conduct exchanges and bring into effect the relevant projects.

Innovation propels sustained development of human society, and is hence also the impetus through which to effect implementation of the Belt and Road Initiative. The international community has reached the consensus that economic and social development should be driven by scientific and technological innovation.

Spanning five geographical time zones from east to west and six climatic zones from north to south, China encompassesa wide range of geographical and geological environments, which have presented enormous challenge in railway operation and transport services. Thetechnologies and innovations China hascommandedas regards high-speed rail construction can without doubt meet various needs of countries and regions along the Belt and Road.

After more than 10years of independent innovation and large scale construction and operation, China leads the world in high-speed rail development, in such aspects as technology, systems integration, R&Dand delivery of high-speed train sets, supporting industries, infrastructure construction, operation, and maintenance.

We have developed the CRH380 series with an operating speed of 350 km/h, represented by CRH380A, the world's most advanced high-speed locomotive.And other successful products include: The high-speed locomotives with an operating speed of 200-350 km/h that can adapt to harsh environments such as frigid zones, deserts, and plateaus;The high-speed trains driven byhybrid power or a permanent magnet synchronous traction system; Themeter gauge high-speed trains;The intercity bullet train units with a speed of 160-200 km/h and the new generation urban rail transit, both catering to the cities along the Belt and Road with the purpose of boosting regional economic integration and modernization;And the heavy haul freight train unitswith 30 tons of axle load that have been applied in large scale and are expected to facilitate the large capacity freight transportation network of the Belt and Road regions.

With the sustained support of the Chinese government, which released a series of science and technology plans during the 11th and 12th Five-Year Plan periods (2006-2015), China's rail transit and railway transportation has been steadily improved to meet the needs of the country's economic and social development. The countryis also at the world forefront of high-speed and heavy haul railways, and commands a complete system of technological innovation and equipment production. It is thus well able to fulfill the transportation system development needs of countries and regions along the Belt and Road.

China recently issued the Special Plan on Advancing Science and Technology Innovation Cooperation in Construction of the Belt and Road, which listed transport as a key field for innovation cooperation. China's 13th Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development also set rail transit, including high-speed railways, as a key sector for technology innovation.

In the coming five years, the railway industry will, aligning with higher learning andresearch institutes as well as the markets, explore in strategic technologies such as safety guarantees, comprehensive effectiveness, continuity, and interoperability of the rail transit system.By 2020, a technology system covering core technologies, key equipment, and integrated application, as well as standards and norms, is expected to take shape. By meeting the needs of rail transit for high performance and comprehensive, integrated, and sustainable development, the system will highlight China's competitive edge, thus promoting realization of the 13th Five-Year Plan.

China has set for the 13th Five-year Plan period the following technical innovation goals in the rail transit sector:

1. A globalized innovation capacity system for the rail transit sector equipped with the functions of agglomeration, radiation, transfer, and synergy, will take shape;

2. A technology system incorporating core technologies, key equipment, and integrated applications, as well as standards and norms covering such aspects as safety guarantees, comprehensive effectiveness, continuity, and interoperability of the rail transit system, will come into being, thus meeting the needs of rail transit for highperformance, comprehensive, integrated, and sustainable development, and serving China's social and economic development.

3. An international capacity system for rail transit technology, standards, and service, capable of extending sufficient support to the Belt and Road Initiative and meeting world market demands will be formed.

China seeks todevelop systematic and core technologiesby 2020 in a spectrum ofsectors that include: safety guarantees, traction power supply and transmission through high energy efficiency, full life circle capacity maintenance, diversified transport system-orientated modes, equipment forhigh-speed passenger trains capable of speeds higher than 400 km/h, upgrading comprehensive effectiveness and service of railways in a high-speed railway network, coordinated transport and service in a regional rail transit system, information integration with respect to rail transit safety and control, faster freight transport, and magnetic levitation technology.

In light of the aforementioned technical breakthroughs, China are expected to build multi-level railway systems and equipment that include: the high-speed train units that travel at speeds higher than 400 km/h which meet various infrastructure standards across Europe and Asia and satisfy the demand for cross-national operation; intermodaltransport trains that travel at speeds of 120 km/h; rapid freight trains that travel at speeds of 160 km/h; high-speed motor freight trains capable of speeds of 250 km/h; and magnetic levitation transport systems capable of speeds of 600 km/h and 200 km/h respectively. Chinese railway industry also sets great store on building a smart and economical rail transit system with regards to safety, operation, maintenance, and equipment.

All these will provide technical support for the construction and operation of the backbone transport network linking countries along the Belt and Road across Asia, Europe, and Africa, and the construction of diversified transport networks in countries and regions along the routes, as well as modernization of the city transport systems in these countries and regions.

Responding to this great initiative that benefits peoples along the routes, Chinese enterprises like CRRC, together with the relevant countries, have established a range of collaborative innovation centers to facilitate cooperation and exchanges on high-speed railway technology and technology transfers. They include joint D&R centers China has set up with such countries as Russia, Thailand, Germany, the Czech Republic, and the U.K. These entities have carried out a battery of innovation projects that have the potential to shape the trajectory of future rail transit development.

Chinese railway-related universities like Beijing Jiaotong University have cultivated multitudes of talents in the field, destined to ply their expertise in countries along the Belt and Road, including Mongolia, India, Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia. All of this lays foundations for the joint construction of interconnected transport networks, people-to-people exchange networks, and technical innovation networks through which to share technical achievements with the countries along the routes.

As a person working in the field of railway technology, I've been involved in the entire process of technical innovations to China's high-speed railways and the so-called Chinese high-speed railway revolution. China's high-speed railways constitute the fruits of what the country has learned from developed Western countries, and their globally significant technical innovations have benefited from the spirit of inclusiveness and innovation. They are hence an impressively product imbued with the spirit of the Silk Road in combining the industrial achievements of both the West and the East.

The mileage of China's high-speed railways has surpassed 20,000 km, which is expected to reach 30,000 km by 2020, and 38,000 km by 2025. It will provide abundant experience as regards the construction of backbone transport networks, regional transport networks, and urban transport networks in countries and regions along the Belt and Road.

Chinese high-speed railway industryhas amassed sufficient technical and industrial innovation capacity to support and realize the Belt and Road Initiative. Through our innovation capacity, advanced technology and equipment, and efficient construction and operation modes we are determined to contribute more to construction of the Belt and Road, thus enabling the whole world to share in the fruits of Chinese innovation.

In conclusion, I wish the conference great success!

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