The coastal city of Qingdao, Shandong province [Photo/VCG]

The eastern coastal city of Qingdao, Shandong province has been accelerating its pace toward becoming an internationally renowned marine economy in recent years, according to local officials.

The marine economy is expected to contribute greatly to Qingdao's high-quality development, and the city has made "building a global marine center city" an important task for the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-25).

"Helping Qingdao build a global marine center city" was also written in the work report of the Shandong provincial government in 2021.

Sun Song, dean of the College of Marine Science at the University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said that Qingdao, as an important port city, should advance the coordinated development of marine logistics, intelligent marine construction, global ocean observation, marine big data, maritime arbitration, finance, insurance, and other fields.

The city should also carry out careful planning in the fields of modern marine fishing and marine biological medicine, said Mo Zhaolan, a professor at the College of Marine Life Sciences at the Ocean University of China.

Mo said that in order to build Qingdao into a global marine central city, strategic planning should be prioritized, the development focus should be different from other coastal cities, and the city's competitive industries should be strengthened.

"Coastal cities such as Shenzhen and Shanghai have been promoting emerging marine industries such as marine electronic information and marine biomedicine," said Zhang Guofang, president of Qingdao-based BMSG, a bio seaweed substance processing firm.

"Shenzhen's emerging marine industries account for 31 percent of its total marine economy, while the figure for Qingdao is only 11 percent," said Zhang. "So I suggest that Qingdao should boost the development of these industries."