CHINA’S first marine economy blue paper has been released in Qingdao, which predicts that the output of the country’s marine economy will exceed 5 trillion yuan in 2012.

    The added value of the marine industry will surpass 3.16 trillion yuan this year while the secondary marine industry will take the largest share in the marine industrial structure, according to the blue paper.

    In regional development, the blue paper said that the Bohai Sea rim region takes a lead in the output of the marine industry, which contributes to over 37 percent of the country’s total output, more than the Yangtze River Delta and the Pearl River Delta.

    Despite the optimistic forecasts of the country’s marine industry, the blue paper said that the development of the marine economy is mainly challenged by an undeveloped industrial structure, low industrial efficiency and quality.

    According to the statistics, the emerging industries, such as marine biological medicine, marine electricity, sea water use, only contributed to 18.3 percent of the marine industry’s total output last year.

    The industry still requires heavy exploration of resources and dependence on labor.

    In addition, excessive exploration of marine resources and worsening marine pollution has been threatening the sustainable development of the industry.

    The blue paper has called for a faster transformation of economic growth mode in the industry, as well as strengthened macro control by the government.

    The blue paper was compiled by a research team at Ocean University of China in Qingdao.

    (Li Hao, Zhao Di)