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A number of lawmakers have submitted a motion to the National People’s Congress, calling for paying equal attention to developing and protecting marine resources.
Official statistics show that the output value of China’s marine sector amounted to 400 billion yuan in 2000, 50 times the figure in the early 1980s.
The lawmakers say in the motion: “China’s 10th Five-Year Plan should take greater heed of marine development. Oceans have become a new growth area in the growth of the economy of the world as a whole.”
China must step up marine legislation, planning and management, set up offices to exercise unified leadership over marine affairs, increase inputs in basic marine research and marine high technology, and intensify marine monitoring, they note.
They ask the Chinese Government to promptly draw up a national plan for the marine economic development to create conditions for building China into a strong marine country with a “well-developed marine economy, standard marine management, advanced marine science and technology, and a good marine ecological environment.”
They also emphasize that the government should promptly institute and improve the system for safeguarding China’s marine rights and interests.
(Xinhua 03/14/2001)
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