"With 18,000 kilometers of coastline, China can upgrade its urban industries near the coastline by developing marine economy across areas and provinces such as Shandong," CPPCC member Wang Xiulin and other members co-proposed to 12th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) and suggested that China can in-depth develop its marine economy in a number of pilot areas.

In April of 2010, the State Council approved for Shandong, Zhejiang and Guangdong to serve as testing areas for marine economy development. After three years of continuous development, the ocean industry GDP of Shandong exceeded 1 trillion yuan (US$162.8 billion) in 2013, 1.4 times than that of 2010 and accounting for 18 percent of the province's overall GDP. Besides, it established breakthroughs in marine resource development as well as scientific and technological development.

"In the Government Work Report of this year, there was one paragraph discussing marine economy development and the creation of a strong marine power," Wang said, "This has never happened before."

After analyzing the experiences of Shandong and other two provinces, members suggested that the government set up a system to combine dispatching, examination and evaluation as to exchange the experiences.

Additionally, it should release more guidelines and set up special funds to support the development, as well as set up the industrial development planning, to attract talent, capital and technology.

"One top priority is to improve the marine economic statistics calculation system and release information and evaluation regularly, as well as to improve scientific decision-making abilities," Wang said.

In addition, Shandong lacks extraordinary talent. He recommended setting up special funds to attract outstanding marine scientists, deep sea exploration experts and management talent.

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