Guangzhou establishes $1.5b urban rail transport public fund

A 10 billion-yuan ($1.51 billion) urban rail transport public fund will be established in Guangzhou, the capital of Guangdong province, to finance the development of the city's urban rail transport industry.

The new fund will invest in rail transport projects, helping integrate resources related to the urban rail transport industry and pave the way for a sustainable development of the industry, according to Han Ying, chairman of the Guangzhou Industrial Investment Fund Management Co.

The fund was established by the Guangzhou Industrial Investment Fund Management Co and a number of local companies related to the urban rail transport industry, with an initial capital of about 2 billion yuan.

"The fund will help develop the rail transport industry into a pillar industry, which is estimated to reach more than 100 billion yuan in industrial output in the near future," said Han.

According to Han, the fund will also invest in key rail transport technologies and help encourage companies with cutting-edge technologies to invest in Guangzhou.

"We will invest in at least 100 key projects in the upstream and downstream sector of the rail transport industry," said Han.

The fund will help develop more than 10 listed rail transport companies with industrial output of 3-5 billion yuan for each in the near future.

"The companies to be listed will become a major force to compete in the international rail transport industry," said Han.

Guangzhou's metro network currently spans 309 kilometers, ranking the third in length in the country. It will surpass 520 kilometers by 2020, according to the government source.

Following the city's expansion of the urban rail network, a number of companies related to the rail industry have boosted their business and a series of key technologies have been used in the city's rail network in recent years.

"Guangzhou's rail transport industry has expanded to almost all areas covering train-equipment manufacturing, communication signals, mechanical and electrical controls, automatic ticket sales, escalator and platform screen doors and engineering construction," said Ding Jianlong, chairman of Guangzhou Metro Group Co.

To facilitate the local rail transport development, an industrial alliance has also been established, according to Ding.

Citing the city's self-innovative communication signal system, which was recently used in local metro line 7, Ding said homegrown cutting-edge technologies have helped expand the city's rail transport industry.