A cooperative project was signed by Chinese and German partners on Friday in Xi'an, capital of Shaanxi province, in Northwest China, aiming to develop the world's largest production base for portable oxygen respirator.

Xi'an High-tech Industrial Development Zone, one of China's top such zones and largest one in Northwest China, Germany Linde Group and Xi'an AirRun Life Science Co., Ltd decided to jointly build the project in the zone, with a total investment of more than 20 million euros ($21.7 million).

With the cooperative project, Linde Group and Xi'an AirRun will both bring their own advantages to produce and sell portable oxygen breathing apparatus, which has the advantages of small size, large capacity, light and portable, and is widely recognized and favored by hypoxia groups such as pregnant women, the elderly and people travelling on high altitude places.

According to Sun Zhenjie, president of Xi'an AirRun, his firm is a professional portable oxygen manufacturer established on Sept 30 in Xi'an. Its range of products comprises portable oxygen cans, home oxygen tanks, small oxygen bars, medical oxygen cylinders and oxygen bottles.

"We have accumulated experience in all aspects of design, production, sales and service, and our products are mostly exported to East Asia, Europe, Middle East, Africa, South America, Canada, and US," Sun said.

Linde Group headquartered in Wiesbaden, Germany, is one of Fortune 500 companies and world leading company for industrial gases and engineering. It was one of the first industrial gases companies to enter China.

Fang Shiwen, president of Linde's East Asia business, said after the agreement Linde has become the holding company of Xi'an AirRun, and the holding company would continue to invest in the project and sell the products over the world with its wide market channels.

An Jianli, director of the zone's administrative committee, said that Xi'an High-tech Industrial Development Zone would continuously provide preferential policies and better services to attract more top global companies to the zone for further development.