(Yicai Global) Oct. 28 -- China's Beijing will bring automated external defibrillators to all subway stations in the capital city by 2022 in an effort to quickly help stopped hearts re-establish a beat.

Four-fifths of subway staff will be trained to obtain cardiac arrest emergency certificates by 2022, the Securities Times reported today.

The success rate of rescue will increase if getting hold of an AED within four minutes and each minute before the 10th should raise the odds by 10 percent, CCTV reported, citing Chen Zhi, director of the Beijing Emergency Medical Center’s training center. After 10 minutes, it is usually too late, Chen added.

Only 1 percent of all cardiac arrests result in a saved life because most of the incidents take place outside hospitals, the same news source added, citing a report by Huachuang Securities.

The plan may prompt a boom in AED sales. China's largest vendor is Dutch multinational Phillips while Shenzhen's Mindray Bio-Medical Electronics is No. 2 with a more than 20 percent market share. Another rising rival may be Yuyue Medical Equipment & Supply whose German unit Metrax owns defibrillator brand Primedic.

By Oct. 26, Beijing already equipped 22 metro stations on line 1 with the related portable devices. By December, some 104 stations in seven lines should be covered. The city has more than 20 subway lines.

More than half of the 38 mainland cities with metro systems have started stocking up on AEDs at the stations. Among first-tier cities, only Guangzhou doesn't have them, according to news website Jiemian.

Editor: Emmi Laine