China and Germany have agreed to strengthen cooperation in the railway sector, the Ministry of Railways said in Beijing on Tuesday.
   
Minister Liu Zhijun and visiting German Minister of Transport, Building and Housing Manfred Stolpe signed an agreement in Beijing the day before to enhance technological and personnel training exchange.
   
They also agreed to exchange high-level officials regularly to refresh each other's management ideas.
   
China's first maglev train, which was built in cooperation with Germany, started test operations at the end of 2002 from Shanghai's Pudong airport to the city center.
   
There has been a massive nationwide railway construction program to extend the length of total operational tracks from 75,000 kilometers in 2005 to 100,000 kilometers by 2020.

China can currently only meet one-third of freight transport demand.

(Xinhua News Agency June 8, 2005)