The eastern coastal city of Qingdao, Shandong province has been ramping up efforts to boost its rail transit and equipment industry to fuel regional high-quality development, local officials said.

The Qingdao Rail Transit Industrial Cluster Development Conference is held on Dec 22. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

The Qingdao Rail Transit Industrial Cluster Development Conference was held on Dec 22 in the city's Chengyang district to facilitate development of the city's rail transit manufacturing industry during the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-25).

According to Bian Cheng, director of the Qingdao Municipal Bureau of Industry and Information Technology, Qingdao's rail transit manufacturing industry has created a system with independent research and development, complete supporting facilities, advanced equipment, and large-scale operations.

The city is home to more than 260 rail transit equipment manufacturing enterprises, which consist of more than 110 industrial enterprises above designated size. There are 13 State-level rail transit manufacturing R&D centers in Qingdao.

In March this year, the Qingdao rail transit equipment cluster was selected as the national advanced manufacturing cluster.

The world's first high-speed maglev train with a top speed of 600 kilometers per hour rolls off the production line in Qingdao, East China's Shandong province on July 20. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

In July, the world's first high-speed maglev transport system with a speed of 600 km/h rolled off the production line in Qingdao. It became the fastest ground vehicle of its kind in the world.

According to its work plan for promoting the city's development of a rail transit industry cluster, Qingdao will launch specific measures to improve the R&D and manufacturing capacity of rail transit equipment, and propel the new materials industry and local supporting parts supply chain.

The city will continue to boost development of the high-speed maglev industry and its maintenance service industry. More efforts will be made to improve the local testing and certification service capacity, develop mechanical electrical equipment and infrastructure engineering equipment, and accelerate industrial integration.

Employees work on an assembly line at CRRC Qingdao Sifang Co in Qingdao, Shandong province. [Photo by Zhang Jingang/For China Daily]

By 2025, the total output value of the Qingdao rail transit equipment industry aims to exceed 150 billion yuan ($23.55 billion) while the total output value of the whole rail transit industry cluster will exceed 200 billion yuan.

By 2035, the total output value of the city's rail transit equipment industry is expected to reach 250 billion yuan, and the total output value of the whole rail transit industry cluster will exceed 500 billion yuan.