A senior official of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) spoke highly Monday of China's contribution to the world's development in oceanographic science.

Patricio A. Bernal, executive secretary of the UNESCO Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC), said at an international seminar that opened Monday in Hangzhou, capital of east China's Zhejiang Province, that oceanographic study is a challenge for countries worldwide.

He said that China, which has a long coastal line, has made a big contribution to the study by engaging itself in many international joint projects.

The sixth international scientific seminar for the West Pacificareas was sponsored by China's State Oceanic Administration and the UNESCO/IOC and attracted more than 200 experts and scholars from 18 countries and regions.

Bernal said that China has joined the ARGO (array for real-time geostrophic oceanography) global oceanic monitoring plan, launched by aerologists and oceanographers from the United States and other nations in 1998 to improve the accuracy of weather forecasts, and the Global Ocean Observation System (GOOS), initiated by the UNESCO/IOC and other international organizations.

Under the ARGO plan, scientists will deploy 3,000 satellite-tracked floats in the four oceans for the collection of temperature, salinity and other oceanic data.

China has so far placed more than 20 ARGO satellite-tracked floats at designated zones, collecting useful oceanic data for oceanic research.

China has also enacted a series of laws, rules and regulations on the protection of oceanic environment and the management of sea use, in a bid to ensure the sustained development of ocean economy.

Sun Zhihui, deputy director of China's State Oceanic Administration, expressed China's willingness to increase cooperation with other countries and UNESCO/IOC in oceanographic study, and its readiness to play a more active role on that score.

(Xinhua News Agency April 20, 2004)