The State Oceanic Administration (SAO) said yesterday in Beijing
that the Chinese mainland's marine industries have entered their
best ever period, with output worth 1.284 trillion yuan (US$155
billion) last year.
Guangdong
Province, Shanghai Municipality and the provinces of Zhejiang,
Shandong
and Fujian
were the top five regional marine economies, each with an output
value of more than 100 billion yuan (US$12 billion), according to
Li Chunxian, the administration's spokesperson.
The output of the offshore oil and gas industry amounted to 59.5
billion yuan (US$7.2 billion), accounting for 4.6 percent of the
gross output of major marine industries.
The figures were disclosed in the Bulletin of the China Marine
Economic Statistics for 2004, released by the SOA yesterday.
"Offshore oil is expected to be the major source of crude oil
increase in the 11th Five-Year Plan period (2006-10)," said He
Guangshun, deputy director of the SOA's National Marine Data and
Information Service.
The output of offshore oil reached 28.43 million tons, up 16.6
percent on the previous year. Southern China's Guangdong Province
took a leading role in the offshore oil and gas industry, with 49.6
percent of the share.
The report showed that China's overall marine economy was in the
middle to upper levels of the world's coastal nations.
"Some Chinese marine industries hold a pivotal position in the
world," said Li.
The country's gross output of sea salt still ranks first in the
world, as does the handling capacity of major coastal harbors. The
marine ship building industry has grown rapidly, holding steady in
third place.
However, Li said, the marine economy is still small per capita
and there is still a great gap with developed countries in terms of
economic and technological content.
Li said rapid development of the marine economy has also
promoted labor and employment in coastal regions.
According to a survey on ocean-related employment, one-tenth of
employees in coastal regions are engaged in ocean-related trades
involving over 21 million people.
Both the Yangtze River Delta and Bohai Sea zones have exceeded
400 billion yuan (US$48.4 billion) in gross major marine industry
output value.
(China Daily February 1, 2005)