Focusing on High Quality Development | Guangdong: Inspiring New Energy Industries in the Blue Economy by Moving Towards the Sea | Ocean | Economy

On June 8th, Guangzhou, Xinhua News Agency reported that in Zhanjiang, the mangrove area of Jinniu Island is full of lush greenery, with herons and birds flying together, creating a harmonious ecological scene; In Zhuhai, Xianglu Bay Beach is bustling with tourists, making it one of the top ten examples of ecological restoration in Guangdong's first national land space; At the sea bass conservation farm in Raoping, Chaozhou, hundreds of mother sea bass fish roam among them, and a provincial-level excellent sea bass breeding farm will be built here... These are a microcosm of the booming development of Guangdong's marine economy.

Xingxing for the sea and striving for strength towards the sea, Guangdong Province's total marine production value in 2022 is 1.8 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 5.4%. The blue economy has become the engine and driving force for high-quality development in Guangdong. Qu Jiashu, member of the Party Group and Deputy Director of the Department of Natural Resources of Guangdong Province, and Director of the Provincial Oceanic Bureau, stated that Guangdong will focus on the primary task of high-quality development and the strategic task of building a new development pattern, actively expand new space for maritime development, accelerate the high-quality development of the marine economy, and fully promote the construction of a strong maritime province.

Building a modern marine industry system to activate the driving force of the blue economy

The 2023 Guangdong Provincial Government Work Report proposes to "expand and strengthen the marine economy, accelerate the construction of a strong marine province" and "vigorously develop marine ranching and deep sea aquaculture".

Guangdong has abundant marine resources and a complete range of marine industries, covering all categories of 28 marine industry categories, with broad development space.

Qu Jiashu introduced that Guangdong, based on the province's marine resource endowment, focuses on six major industries: offshore wind power, marine engineering equipment, marine electronic information, natural gas hydrates, marine biology, and marine public services to promote changes in the quality, efficiency, and power of the marine economy.

Zhanjiang is a major aquaculture city, and the Zhanjiang Economic and Technological Development Zone is a national demonstration zone for marine economic development. With over 3500 deep-sea net cages, it is known as the "Capital of Chinese Pomfret" and "Capital of Chinese Shrimp". It is one of the important aquaculture, processing, and export bases in China. During the golden autumn season every year, the plump golden pomfret from deep sea cages enters the harvest period.

Guangdong fishermen are fishing at sea. Photo by Wu Jiawei from Xinhua News Agency

"We need to promote the improvement and efficiency of traditional marine industries," Qu Jiashu said. Guangdong will firmly establish the concept of big food, accelerate the promotion of marine ranching and deep sea aquaculture, and explore the construction of a modern marine ranching industry chain from seed industry, aquaculture, equipment to deep processing.

In addition, Guangdong is also accelerating the development of emerging industries such as marine new materials and marine engineering equipment, giving full play to the role of enterprises as the main body, enhancing the leading and competitive power of "chain owners" in the marine industry, cultivating and strengthening trillion level industrial clusters in marine oil, gas, chemical industry, marine tourism, as well as trillion level industrial clusters in marine clean energy, marine ships, and marine engineering equipment.

Strengthening Marine Technology Innovation and Building a Blue Technology Engine

The ocean comprehensive scientific research internship ship "Sun Yat sen University" unlocks the mysteries of deep blue on its journey to the starry sea; The deep-sea floating wind power equipment "Fuyao" located in the Xuwenluo Dousha area of Zhanjiang has achieved the localization of primary components; The number of patent authorizations in fields such as marine pharmaceuticals, marine renewable energy, marine oil and gas, and seabed mineral development and utilization industries has increased... As the main battlefield of a new round of technological revolution, the ocean is the primary driving force for high-quality socio-economic development.

Statistics show that by the end of 2022, Guangdong Province has built 145 sea related platforms at or above the provincial level covering marine biotechnology, marine disaster prevention and reduction, marine drugs, marine environment and other fields, including one State Key Laboratory.

Qu Jiashu stated that Guangdong has deeply implemented the innovation driven development strategy, strengthened the construction of innovation systems, concentrated high-quality resources to strengthen the construction of major scientific and technological innovation platforms, promoted the deep integration of industry, academia, and research, and provided strong support for the development of the marine economy. In the future, Guangdong will also increase its efforts to transform scientific and technological achievements, cultivate new growth points, and form new driving forces.

Strengthening marine ecological protection and restoration, building a solid blue ecological barrier

Mangrove forests are known as "coastal guardians" and "ocean green lungs". Mangroves play an important role in purifying seawater, preventing wind and waves, and maintaining biodiversity, making them a green coastal treasure. Along the coastlines of Zhanjiang, Huizhou and other places, continuous mangrove forests guard the rich ecology of wetlands.

This is a mangrove forest captured on May 24th on Jinniu Island in Zhanjiang City. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Deng Hua

As Guangdong's marine economy enters the fast lane of high-quality development, the green and beautiful ecological construction of Guangdong is accelerating, and the blue ecological security barrier is further strengthened. Currently, guided by planning, Guangdong is promoting a new approach of combining planting and breeding, with a focus on the construction of four 10000 acre mangrove forests in Taishan Town, Jiangmen, the coastal area of Leizhou in Zhanjiang, the northeast sea area of Xuwen in Zhanjiang, and Kaozhouyang in Huidong, Huizhou.

As of the end of 2022, Guangdong coastal cities have built 4 internationally important wetlands, 2 nationally important wetlands, and 13 national wetland parks. From 2020 to 2022, Guangdong Province has newly constructed 1219 hectares of mangrove forests and restored 322 hectares of mangrove forests.

In addition, Guangdong vigorously develops advanced nuclear energy, offshore wind power and other marine clean energy, promotes the agglomeration and development of the offshore wind power industry, accelerates the construction of the entire Yangjiang offshore wind power industry chain, as well as the construction of offshore engineering, operation and maintenance, and supporting assembly bases in eastern Guangdong, cultivates and develops the blue carbon sink industry, and explores the path to realizing the value of marine ecological products.

Qu Jiashu stated that next, Guangdong will use the coastal zone as the main battlefield and the coastal economic zone as the main engine to develop and utilize marine resources with high quality, promote the extension of the land economic system to the ocean, expand the space for maritime development, unleash the "blue potential", and build a new maritime Guangdong.