The signing and opening ceremony for a cooperation agreement between North China's Inner Mongolia autonomous region and the China Iron & Steel Research Institute Group, or CISRI, was held in Baotou on Feb 15.

The accord is to build the Rare Earth New Material Technology Innovation Center.

The secretary of Baotou municipal Party committee (left) and the vice chairman of the autonomous region government unveil the center. [Photo/WeChat account of Baotou Daily]

Baotou is China's largest rare earth raw material supply base, functional material production and processing base and research and application base.

For its part, CISRI is the biggest comprehensive R&D and high-tech industrialization institute in China's materials and metallurgy industry.

Under the agreement, the two will jointly build the innovation center, which is expected to inject strong momentum into the development of China's rare earth sector.