China's maritime economy expands by over 8% annually

BEIJING - A government report made public on Tuesday said the total production value of China's maritime industry grew by an average of 8.4 percent annually from 2011 to 2014, representing over 9.3 percent of the GDP each year.

During the same time frame, the industrialized utilization of ocean water had accelerated, according to the 2015 report on China's marine economy development issued by the State Oceanic Administration (SOA).

The daily desalination capacity increased by 331,000 tons and annual growth rate of maritime biological medicine added value reached 19.6 percent, the report said.

Since 2010, the central government approved Tianjin municipality and provinces of Shandong, Zhejiang, Guangdong and Fujian to pilot development of the maritime economy. In 2014, the five regions contributed 67.1 percent of the country's total maritime GDP.

Over the past decade China's trade with countries along the Maritime Silk Road grew by 18.2 percent annually, accounting for 20 percent of the country's total foreign trade volume from 14.6 percent. Chinese companies' foreign direct investment to these countries increased from $240 million to $9.27 billion.

Zhang Zhanhai, head of strategic planning and economy department of the SOA, said in the next five years China will advance new maritime economy development pattern by taking advantage of Internet and big data, and at the same time improve maritime environment.