On September 20, the 13th International Trade Fair for Transport Technology, known as the "Olympic Games" of the global rail transit industry, kicked off with a grand opening ceremony in Berlin, Germany. HollySys made a return to the InnoTrans event this year, following its previous participation in the 2018 event. Dedicated to rail transit automation for more than 20 years, and from its early days as a startup, HollySys has now established itself as a builder and contributor in the field of the operational control system (OCS) for trains running on the trunk railways and integrated supervisory control system (ISCS) for urban rail transit (internationally known as the master control system), with the following widely-accepted products. More than 2,800 sets of its onboard ATP systems are equipped on Fuxing trains of various models and CRH EMUs running on high-speed railways throughout China, enabling the company to capture almost half of the domestic market (data as of the end of 2021). More than 1,100 sets of train control trackside systems are currently in operation to guarantee the operational safety of HSRs for more than 14,000 kilometers. Additionally, its urban rail transit control systems currently serve 58 metro lines in 15 cities across China. The reporting team of Rail, a market information platform dedicated to tracking the overseas development of China's rail transit enterprises, had the opportunity to interview Mr. Li Zhi, Vice President of HollySys Group and President of Beijing HollySys Co., Ltd., to unveil the company's inspiring journey towards achieving technological breakthroughs and expanding its market reach through continuous efforts.

Rail: HollySys's participation in InnoTrans dates back to 2018, but what are the key factors that the company has considered while deciding to return to the InnoTrans event in Berlin this year?

Li Zhi: In fact, before 2018, HollySys had sent its staff to Berlin to participate in the exhibition, which is the most important innovation and exchange platform in the global rail transit field, attracting suppliers, project owners, and other industry players, offering a stage to display new technologies, and therefore playing a significant influence on the industry. As a Chinese enterprise among those engaging in the signal sector, HollySys expects to display the latest technologies and products made by China in the field of rail transit and the image of Chinese technological companies.

In recent years, China has made remarkable strides in developing its high-speed railway technology, and it has been the first country to apply many of these cutting-edge technologies, thereby leading the world in some segments. We also seek to share our expertise with the world by participating in influential platforms such as Innotrans.

Rail: As a valuable "business card" of China, high-speed rail has emerged as an iconic symbol of China's scientific and technological strength in the international market. Against the backdrop of China's booming rail transit industry, how is HollySys planning to develop its rail transit business abroad? How does HollySys expand its global presence, leveraging its brand and products?

Li Zhi: We have always regarded the development of overseas business as a cornerstone of our global operation strategy from the very outset. While we have been deeply committed to the domestic market, given priorities in strategic initiatives and resource allocation, particularly amid the rapid growth of China's high-speed railways and metros over the past years, the company has, in fact, long recognized the critical importance of international expansion, positioning it at the top of our to-do list. HollySys made its foray into overseas development during its early days, with the establishment of HollySys (Asia Pacific) Pte. Ltd. in Singapore 15 years ago. Singapore's international environment provided a favorable landscape for us to integrate with the global community and promote our overseas business. Despite the much fewer efforts made to overseas markets compared with the domestic market in recent years, HollySys has never stopped its pursuit of the outside world. Approximately 7 or 8 years ago, a breakthrough was made in the Singapore market by supplying a master control system for Thomson–East Coast Line. This milestone followed HollySys's earlier successful entry into the Hong Kong market more than a decade ago, by supplying a signal system and master control system for the Hong Kong section of the Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong High-speed Railway. Our approach is to leverage the international environments of Singapore and Hong Kong to establish foreign exchange footholds and expand our overseas business, introducing China's high-speed rail technologies of the signal system and master control system to the rest of the world, and share our experience from China's development of high-speed railways, metros, and intracity railways worldwide. I am very confident about the range of diversified products developed and the significant technical progress achieved by HollySys in the past 15 years. They are worthy of sharing with a broader range of customers around the world. By doing so, we can create new opportunities for our company's growth and contribute to the advancement of the global railway industry.

Rail: We are eager to learn more about the development history of HollySys. Could you please give us a brief overview? We are also curious to know about HollySys's notable contributions in the development of China's railway industry.

Li Zhi: HollySys has been involved in transportation business for more than 20 years. In 1999, HollySys set up its transportation business division, which has since grown in influence and impact over the years. Let's talk about metros first. As early as in 2000 and 2001, HollySys provided groundbreaking industrial solutions, as the first supplier for China's early metro systems in Shenzhen and Guangzhou. Besides making significant contributions to the development of China's metro systems, HollySys has played an essential role in establishing a full set of Chinese technical standards for the master control system. Speaking of high-speed rail, when China committed to the independent development of high-speed rail systems in 2003 and 2004, HollySys was among the pioneering companies that participated actively in the development of standards, alongside several other enterprises under the former Ministry of Railways' organization. In 2006 and 2007, as one of the two suppliers, HollySys played a positive role in facilitating the successful completion of the sixth round of nationwide speed-up over Chinese railways. Embarking on the development of 350 km/h HSRs in 2008, China has implemented state-level strategies of "trading technology with the market" and "introduction, digestion, absorption, re-innovation, and independent innovation" under the leadership of the Ministry of Railways, followed by the technological localization and independent development. HollySys was honored to be among the major suppliers contributing to this initiative. We was proud to witness the launching of the first 350 km/h HSR for operation in 2010, also one of the first two suppliers. After China's high-speed trains reached a normal running speed of 350 km/h, the country turned to developing automatic train operation. The three railways in the Pearl River Delta of Guangdong launched train service in 2015, for automatic operation at speeds over 250 km/h, thanks to the application of full-automatic driving technology as a remarkable result from research and development efforts during 2012 to 2015. China has been consistently making progress in developing high-speed rail technologies under the government's support. China began the R&D of automatic train operation on HSRs at 350 km/h in 2017, and completed the development tasks and field tests in the same year. HollySys played an integral role in this effort, which resulted in trains under automatic operation reaching 350 km/h on the Beijing-Shenyang HSR in 2018 and the Beijing-Zhangjiakou HSR in 2020 and 2021. HollySys has been involved in the technological progress of train control for the China's high-speed rail sector over the past two decades. As one of the major suppliers, we have grown alongside China's technological development in the signaling system field. It is an honor to witness China's achievements in high-speed rail, which currently lead the world. As China's high-speed rail sector has grown, HollySys has been an active participant, making important contributions while benefiting our own growth. We expect to continue contributing to the industry in the future.

Rail: Could you please give a brief introduction on the Automatic Train Operation (ATO) system being exhibited?

Li Zhi: The ATO system on exhibit this time is a fully automatic product. China was actually the first country to develop an automatic train operation system at 250km/h, whereas such technology had previously been mainly applied in metros in other countries. The Chinese government initiated the development of automatic train operation systems at speeds over 250 km/h in Guangdong in 2012, in which we participated as one of the four suppliers. The first batch of railways opened in 2015. The fully automatic driving technology was advanced in China by Chinese enterprises in collaboration and under the guidance of the government, which is worthy of mention. China took the lead in launching a 250km/h full-automatic operation system in 2015, the highest in the world at that time. China's leading position was reinforced after it began to develop automatic train operations at 350 km/h. After formulating standards on the basis of its own experience and domestic demands, China completed the system development and lab tests in 2017. In 2018, the operational test was carried out on the 350 km/h HSR from Beijing to Shenyang. In 2020, the system was successfully used on Beijing-Zhangjiakou HSR during the Beijing Winter Olympics. China has maintained its leading position in the high-speed rail industry, largely due to its impressive technological advancements in automatic train operation at both 250 km/h and 350 km/h. In addition to high-speed rail, automatic operation is also used for metros and CBTC systems, with shared underlying technologies. HollySys has been involved since the very beginning, and we offer a full range of products that cater to both metros and HSRs. China's approach to high-speed rail development, which began by learning from others, and has been shaped by China's market demands, reflects distinctively Chinese characteristics and paved a successful path for Chinese enterprises to follow.

Rail: Could you please introduce the edge cloud composite (ECC) based intelligent control cloud node on display.

Li Zhi: It is a new concept emerging with the overall technology development in recent years. Our previous results were based on traditional approaches within a stable technological architecture system. However, new technologies continue to emerge at a rapid pace, such as the significant advances in hardware technology with big computing power, the development of AI, the evolvement of software architecture, and especially the concept of "cloud", which emerged 15 or 16 years ago and has been widely used in the industry in recent years. It is widely recognized by all industrial players as a technology trend. Under the organization and leadership of Beijing Subway, HollySys has participated in researching and developing a "cloud-edge-end" technology architecture for Beijing Subway and facilitated the successful application of this architecture in the actual engineering works. This technology is based on the basic concept of concentrating some edge functions on the edge node, to enable a small size of edge devices, while deploying data access, intelligent control, virtualization processing, and some special algorithms on the edge and even virtualizing them, resulting in a simplified edge, that is, simple devices at the side close to the field. This architecture also allows for more flexible data processing, as well as greater ease in applying new technologies, such as AI and big data processing. Unlike the original architecture consisting of independent systems acting like information silos, the new technology infrastructure integrates multiple systems, creating a more efficient architecture that lays a solid foundation for future technological upgrades. This technology has been applied in Line 19 of Beijing Subway, which began operating last year, representing a trend of technology development. Chinese enterprises like HollySys are very lucky to have the opportunity to participate in such market-driven technological transformation.

Rail: In July last year, Line 6 of Kunming Metro connecting Kunming Changshui International Airport was put into service, which is operated under a communication-based train control (CBTC) signaling system supplied by HollySys as the first application in China. Since this solution is also being showcased this time, could you please give us a brief introduction?

Li Zhi: Kunming Metro Line 6 opened at the end of last year, and it is an engineering project using our solution for the CBTC signaling system. We have been following up on the technical research of metro signaling since 2010. Despite many underlying technologies similar to high-speed rail technology, the solution is characterized to reflect the features of a metro system, for instance, running speeds of 80 to 100 kilometers per hour, and a tight headway. In addition to our CBTC signaling system, HollySys has developed a TIAS system featuring deep integration of the signaling system and integrated supervisory control system, it has been put into operation to support commercial service since 2017. The CBTC full-automatic equipment supplied by HollySys is currently undergoing commissioning on Beijing Subway Line 17, with passenger transport set to begin soon. We were recently awarded the Chongqing Airport Subway Project, which is another opportunity for us to further promote the development of signaling technology. Our conventional CBTC solution and fully automatic operation (FAO) solution will be officially delivered to the client as part of this project, and we also plan to test the signaling system based on V2V communication for performance verification in this airport subway project. At HollySys, we are dedicated to continuous innovation, refinement, and iteration of our signaling system technologies to align with evolving industry trends. We have been unwaveringly committed to sharing reliable and cutting-edge technologies with users and offering solutions to our their satisfaction.