BEIJING, March 17 -- China's Ministry of Railways signed a deal with state-owned vehicle producer CNR Corporation Ltd. on Monday to purchase 100 high-speed CRH trains for 39.2 billion yuan (about 5.74 billion U.S. dollars).

    CRH, an abbreviation for China Railway High-speed, refers to trains with speeds above 200 km per hour. With a designed speed of 350km/h, the new CRH trains will travel between Beijing and Shanghai in 2011, when the construction of the 1318-km, high-speed railway between the capital city and the country's financial hub is expected to complete.

    Soundbite: Zhang Shuguang, director of the transport department under the MOR.

    "The contract does not include any foreign parties, as Chinese companies possess core technologies for the high-speed trains and have complete intellectual rights over the 350km/h CRH type,"

    The Ministry of Railways introduced railway technologies from Japan, France, Germany and Canada in the development and production of the 200km/h CRH trains already in operation.

    According to the agreement between the ministry and CNR, all 100 trains will be developed and manufactured under the CNR group. Tangshan Railway Vehicle Co. and Changchun Railway Vehicle Co., two CNR subsidiaries, will oversee the production of 60 sets and 40 sets, respectively.

    Zhang said China would see "large purchases" of CRH trains in the coming years upon the completion of more passenger railway lines across the country.

    The MOR plans to spend 500 billion yuan to purchase trains over the next four years.

    The manufacturing of a CRH train requires nearly 100,000 parts from a wide range of industries such as mechanics, metallurgy, electrics, chemical, and materials.

    Xinhua News Agency correspondents reporting from Beijing.

    (Source: XHTV)