China's seas contributed 2.49 trillion yuan (347 billion US
dollars), or ten percent, of the country's gross domestic product
(GDP) last year, according to a report on China's marine economy in
2007.
The report, issued by the State Oceanic Administration (SOA),
said the value of marine industries, including fishing, transport,
oil and gas, tourism and shipbuilding, grew 15 percent year on
year, more than the economy as a whole, according to the China
Daily on Sunday.
The main pillars of the rapid growth were the traditional
industries of transport, tourism and fishing, which accounted for
more than 80 percent of total output value, said SOA spokesman Li
Haiqing.
Emerging industries, for example, the oceanic biological
pharmaceutical industry, which generated more than four billion
yuan last year, up more than 37 percent, also grew swiftly,
according to the report.
Offshore wind power generation also saw breakthroughs last year.
With the launch in November of the first offshore wind power
station, funded and run by the China National Offshore Oil
Corporation, the sector generated 500 million yuan, up 17 percent
year on year.
The marine industry employed 31.5 million people last year,
1.9million more than in 2006, the report said.
The gross production value in the Bohai Bay Rim Area was more
than 954 billion yuan, accounting for 38 percent of total output of
the marine sector. Similarly, the gross production of the Yangtze
River Delta region amounted to about 775 billion yuan, or about 31
percent of the total output.
However, Xu Linzhi, an official from the environmental
protection department of the SOA, said the swift development of the
maritime economy in the Bohai Bay Rim Area had been achieved at the
cost of the environment.
"We must ensure growth is environmentally sound," he was quoted
as saying by China Daily.
(Xinhua News Ageny February 17, 2008)
