On August 16, in the ecological breeding area of Lidao Bay, Lidao Town, Rongcheng City, Shandong Province, fishermen drove fishing boats to go out to sea (drone photo). Data map of Xinhua Agency
On October 31, the National Oceanic Information Center released the "2024 China Marine Economic Development Index" at the 2024 China Marine Economic Expo. The "2024 China Marine Economic Development Index" is a comprehensive quantitative assessment of the development status of China's marine economy in a certain period of time, covering five areas, including development scale and efficiency, structural optimization and upgrading, resource conservation and utilization, foreign economy and trade, and people's livelihood security and improvement. The index for each sub-area is based on 2015, and the base index is set at 100.
The index results show that China's marine economic development index in 2023 will be 123.5, an increase of 3.0% over the previous year. The development of the marine economy is making steady progress, and high-quality development results are gradually emerging.
The sub-sector index shows that the marine economy is recovering well, the scale of development continues to expand, and development benefits are gradually recovering. In 2023, the development scale and efficiency index will be 122.5, an increase of 2.4% over the previous year. The country's total marine production reached 9.9 trillion yuan, an increase of 6.0% over the previous year. The per capita marine product of coastal areas increased by 6.0% in nominal terms over the previous year. The number of units of marine economic activity in the marine industry under key monitoring increased by 12.0% compared with the previous year. The operating income profit margin of marine industrial enterprises dropped by 0.9 percentage points compared with the previous year. However, since the second half of the year, the operating income profit margin has rebounded, and corporate benefits have continued to recover.
Emerging marine industries are developing rapidly, traditional industries are accelerating their transformation and upgrading, scientific and technological innovation capabilities are steadily improving, and finance has helped high-quality development of the marine economy. In 2023, the structural optimization and upgrading index will be 129.4, an increase of 3.1% over the previous year. The added value of emerging marine industries exceeded 200 billion yuan, and the added value of marine manufacturing accounted for more than 30% of the total marine production. The research and experimental development (R D) funding of key monitored marine research institutions remained stable, and the number of patent authorizations and the income from the transformation of scientific and technological achievements of marine research institutions both achieved rapid growth. 31 sea-related companies completed IPOs, with a financing scale of 34.2 billion yuan, and the financial capital market was active.
The level of conservation and intensification of marine resources has been steadily improved, and resource utilization capabilities have been significantly improved. In 2023, the resource conservation and utilization index will be 118.0, an increase of 2.4% over the previous year. The added value of the marine industry created per hectare of confirmed sea area increased by 2.4% in nominal terms over the previous year. The proportion of mariculture output in marine aquatic product output increased by 1 percentage point over the previous year. Offshore crude oil and natural gas output increased by 5.8% and 9.1% respectively over the previous year. Offshore wind power generation increased by 17.6% over the previous year. The scale of seawater desalination projects and seawater cooling water consumption increased by 7.0% and 4.7% respectively over the previous year.
The volume and quality of foreign economic and trade have improved steadily, and high-level opening up to the outside world has been steadily advanced. In 2023, the foreign economic and trade index will be 117.9, an increase of 2.2% over the previous year. Affected by factors such as the weak recovery of the world economy, my country's total maritime import and export volume fell by 1.4% compared with the previous year, but better than expected. The container throughput of international routes increased by 4.3% compared with the previous year, showing strong development resilience. The proportion of completed exports of sea-going ships in global completions increased by 2.2 percentage points over the previous year. The trade volume of coastal countries under the Belt and Road Initiative increased by 1.1% over the previous year.
The level of people's livelihood security has steadily improved, the income of marine fishermen and maritime space have continued to improve, and marine tourism has recovered strongly. In 2023, the People's Livelihood Security and Improvement Index will be 125.5, an increase of 4.5% over the previous year. The per capita net income of marine fishermen increased by 3.6% over the previous year. The per capita possession of marine aquatic products increased by 1.3 kilograms compared with the previous year. The area of the ocean park per 10,000 people remained stable. The number of domestic tourists received in coastal cities has increased by more than 60% year-on-year, and integrated marine tourism formats continue to emerge.