In front of the large screen in the transparent center of Huawei Park in Shenzhen, Talhat Adbiergnov, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Kazakhstan State Railway Company (Kazakhstan State Railway), paused for a long time. The cutting-edge applications such as AI train scheduling and intelligent fault prediction dynamically demonstrated on the screen are exactly the "key" he is seeking during his trip to China - how to use the most advanced technology to unlock Kazakhstan's greater potential as a hub for the Eurasian Continental Bridge.

Recently, Ardebergnov led a delegation to visit China and held high-level talks with Huawei's Chairman and President of Intelligent Transportation Business in Shenzhen. Both sides not only had in-depth exchanges on the landing scenarios of artificial intelligence technology in railway transportation, but the Harbin delegation also conducted on-site inspections of Huawei's global intelligent transportation solutions, network security system, and latest innovative achievements. The climax of the visit was the signing of a new deepening cooperation agreement between the two sides, which pressed the "acceleration button" for the digital transformation of Harbin Railway.

Targeting AI and Digital Cornerstones

According to the agreement, future cooperation between the two parties will focus on several core areas: promoting railway communication networks based on new generation standards, jointly building big data and cloud computing infrastructure, and jointly developing AI security protection systems for railway operations. This means that cooperation extends from a single project to systematic and fundamental support. In addition, the agreement also emphasizes the joint training of talents, aiming to build a localized digital professional team for Harbin Railway and consolidate the foundation for long-term development.

The digitization of 33 million tons of transportation volume is forcing

The demand for technological upgrading by Harbin Railway is extremely urgent. As an important cross-border transportation hub, there are five international railway corridors crossing Kazakhstan. The data shows that its transit transportation volume is expected to reach 33 million tons in 2026. To cope with the pressure of sustained growth, the government of Kazakhstan has planned to modernize and upgrade a large number of railway facilities before 2029. In this context, the digitization and intelligence of the railway system are no longer just icing on the cake, but an inevitable choice related to operational efficiency and safety. Harbin Railway's own digital transformation strategy is highly compatible with Huawei's profound technological accumulation in fields such as 5G, artificial intelligence, and cloud computing.

From joint innovation to deep market cultivation

This cooperation is a natural deepening of the long-term partnership between the two parties. Previously, Huawei and Harbin Railway had established a joint innovation center and successfully promoted the preliminary application of Huawei Cloud Pangu Big Model in the local area. Nowadays, the scope of cooperation has further expanded, and AI technology will be more deeply integrated into core business processes such as railway safety monitoring and intelligent scheduling. For Huawei, this is a key deepening and demonstration of its intelligent transportation solutions in the Central Asian market. For Harbin Railway, leveraging China's mature technology and experience to accelerate the construction of its own "intelligent railway" system, directly improving the mainline traffic capacity and transportation efficiency, is undoubtedly a shortcut to achieving its national strategic goals.

This cross-border 'technological handshake' not only concerns the future development of the two companies, but also vividly embodies the strategic cooperation between China and Kazakhstan in the era of digital economy, focusing on the intelligence of infrastructure. It indicates that the continuous steel arteries will become stronger and smarter due to artificial intelligence.Editor/Yang Meiling