The transport-themed roundtable celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Beijing-Moscow partnership was held virtually on December 8. Leading officials of the transport authorities of both cities elaborated on such topics as transport development strategy, rail transit development and smart transportation. Beijing Mass Transit Railway Operation Corporation Limited and Moscow Metro Corporation renewed their cooperation and partnership agreement at the roundtable.

Urban rail transit is the direction of transport development in modern metropolises and an effective way to address the urban diseases and build green and smart cities. Moscow, as the capital and financial and business center of Russia, ranks among the top in urban transport infrastructure and public transportation. Beijing and Moscow signed the cooperation agreement in 2015 and have shared their strengths and experience in depth in the past five years. By renewing the agreement, they will continue the exchanges in such fields as operation safety and services, maintenance and procurement of equipment and facilities, and operation management, and will conduct cooperative research on technical difficulties together.

"Moscow has made remarkable achievements in developing reliable and convenient rail transit with appropriate density, which offers useful references for metropolises around the world, including Beijing, to develop public transportation with rail transit as the mainstay," said Wang Chunqiang, level-2 inspector of Beijing Municipal Commission of Transport, in his speech.

At present, most countries are still confronted by the grave test of the pandemic in autumn and winter. After the COVID-19 broke out, Beijing has realized zero infection and zero transmission across its transport system and vehicles. Viktor Kozlov, Managing Director of Moscow Metro Corporation, said that Beijing's experience in rationally scheduling urban transport during the pandemic has offered important references to Moscow.

The roundtable is one of the events in celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Beijing-Moscow partnership. On the same day, the two cities also held dedicated online seminars on sci-tech innovation, economy, trade, and investment by relevant departments, at which they discussed their development needs in a bid to tighten the sister-city ties and better align their central tasks.

(Reporter: Bai Bo)