There is an abundance of living things, oil and gas, and mineral resources in the ocean. Developing the marine economy is of great significance to promoting reasonable economic distribution and industrial structure adjustment in the coastal areas and maintaining sustainable and healthy development of China's economy. Since the 16th CPC National Congress, China's marine economy has made great headway and has been playing an increasingly important role in the development of the national economy and society. In 2011, the total output value of China's marine industry reached RMB 4.56 trillion Yuan, accounting for almost 10 percent of total GDP.
Considerable improvement of industrial status
The economic aggregate of China's marine industry has made breakthrough; in 2011, total marine output value reached RMB 4.56 trillion Yuan, growing by 400 percent over the RMB 0.93 trillion Yuan in 2001.
In 2003, the State Council published China's first guideline for the development of its national marine economy: Outline of the Planning of National Marine Economy Development. The Outline proposes the development goal that "the added value of the marine industry will account for about 4 percent of GDP in 2005 and more than 5% in 2010". In the past 10 years, China's marine economy has been developing vigorously, with rapid growth in all of its sectors. In 2011, the total output value of China's marine industry reached RMB 4.56 trillion Yuan, increasing by 10.4 percent over the previous year. It has become a major force that propels China's economic development.
In 2011, the State Council approved the Blue Economic Zone Development Plan of the Shandong Peninsular, Planning of Zhejiang Marine Economic Development Demonstration Area, and Development Plan of the Comprehensive Pilot Area of Guangdong Marine Economy. At this point, on the basis of the planning of the 11th Five-year Plan on the coastal areas, the development plans of 11 costal economic zones from north to south have become national strategies. The development of the marine economy has risen to an unprecedented strategic height.
Regional marine economies, represented by the Bohai Rim, the Yangtze River Delta, and the Pearl River Delta, have developed rapidly. In 2011, total marine output value of these three regions accounted for as much as 87.7 percent of total national marine output. The development layout of "3 + N" in the coastal areas has taken shape, and the development of China's marine economy is now on the fast track.
Industrial structure continues to improve
In 2011, the added value of China's primary, secondary, and tertiary marine industries were RMB 232.7 billion Yuan, RMB 2,183.5 billion Yuan, and RMB2,140.8 billion Yuan respectively, accounting for 5.1 percent, 47.9 percent, and 47 percent of total marine output value.
In the past 10 years, thanks to marine technology innovations, China's marine resources development and utilization have deepened and broadened continuously, the industrial structure of the marine economy has been improving incessantly, and the marine economy has maintained a stable and rapid development trend.
In terms of industrial structure of the three levels, the proportion of the primary marine industry, which consists mainly of the marine fishing industry, has been decreasing gradually, that of the secondary industry has been increasing, and that of the tertiary industry, which includes the marine transport industry and coastal tourism industry, has maintained steady growth. The ratio of the three industrial tiers has changed from 28:29:43 in 2003 to 5:47:48 in 2010. China's marine economy is now in a "Tertiary-Secondary-Primary" pattern.
The sustained optimization of the structure of the marine industry helps to improve the international competiveness of China's marine industry. China's marine oil and gas industry has been developing rapidly. In 2010, marine oil and gas output exceeded 50 million tons of oil equivalent, putting China into the rank of major marine oil and gas producers. Besides, manufacturing ability of marine oil and gas equipments has been greatly improved. China's self-built and world leading drilling platform, geophysical survey vessel, and pipe laying vessel have been put into use successively; spurred by China's incentive policies and guided by the Adjustment and Revitalization Plan of the Shipbuilding Industry, the industrial scale and volume of China's shipbuilding industry have made historic breakthroughs, achieving industrial added value of RMB 118.2 billion Yuan in 2010, making China the world's biggest shipbuilding country; China's self-developed Jiaolong manned submersible is currently the deepest diving submersible in the world. In June this year, Jiaolong created a new record of China's manned deep diving endeavor in the 7,000-meter marine test, succeeding in reaching a depth of 7062 meters. It is a new breakthrough and a major leap for the development of China's deep-water technology, signifying that China's deep-water manned technology has reached international advanced level and equipping China with the ability to conduct scientific researches and resources survey in 99.8 percent of the world's deep waters.
Achieving breakthroughs in key technologies
As marine technologies continue to innovate, a number of China's emerging marine industries, such as marine biomedicine industry, sea water utilization industry, and marine power industry, have taken shape and are full of vigor.
In water utilization, a 10,000-ton sea water circulation cooling technology project demonstration used in power or chemical industry has been successfully implemented, succeeding in substituting sea water for fresh water as industrial circulation cooling water and reducing operation cost by 50 percent; mainstream sea water desalting technologies, including reverse osmosis and steaming, have been adopted in completing a proprietary low-temperature and multi-purpose sea water desalting project with daily handling capacity of 3,000 m3 and a reverse osmosis water desalting project with a daily handling capacity of 5,000 m3. Currently, China's sea water utilization technologies are rather mature and ready to be industrialized.
In marine power, marine wind power generation has been developing rapidly. In 2007, China's first offshore marine wind power station, which is located in the Liaodong Bay in Bohai Sea, was put into operation; in 2010, the Shanghai East Sea Bridge 100,000-kw Marine Wind Farm, which is Asia's first large-scale marine wind farm, began to provide electricity to 400,000 households. Currently, China has 18 coastal wind farms, and the Nan'ao Wind Farm, Daliang Hengshan Wind Farm, and Shandong Changdong Wind Farm have achieved grid-connected power generation.
In marine biomedicine, productions of 7 marine biomedicines have obtained national approval, and 15 have obtained provincial approval; there are now more than 20 marine biomedicine enterprises in China.
According to statistics, from 2001 to 2011, the added value of the marine biomedicine industry has increased from RMB 570 million Yuan to RMB 9.9 billion Yuan, increasing by more than 17 times, and the added value of the marine power industry has increased from RMB 180 million Yuan to RMB 4.9 billion Yuan, the growth rate higher than the average of the marine economy as a whole.