News from the State Oceanic Administration says China's main marine industries yielded production value of 720.23 billion yuan and added value of 284.24 billion yuan in the first half of this year, increasing by 10.8 percent year on year (calculated at comparable prices). It is equal to 4.2 percent of contemporary GDP, up by 0.3 percentage point compared with the same period last year. Proportions of the three types of industry are 20:25:55, showing the industry structure is growing reasonable.

The operation of the marine industry showed following traits in the first half year:

China's coastal regions are stepping up efforts in restructuring marine industry, developing industries of deep processing and high technological content and constantly raising the competitiveness of the marine industry. Restructuring of the marine industry structure has shown preliminary effect.

Burgeoning marine industries are developing rapidly and those supported by high and innovative technologies are beginning to shape up. For example, production value of marine bio-pharmaceutical industry has reached 4.26 billion yuan, up by 39.5 percent year on year; marine power and seawater utilization yielded 34.31 billion yuan, up by 19.4 percent year on year; marine industry foreign trade developed rapidly, which saw 22.8 billion yuan industrial output in marine shipping industry, up by 47.2 percent year on year, with over 70 percent shipbuilding for exports to 110 or so countries including the US and Japan.

Marine gas and oil industry, the industry leading marine energy exploitation, sped up its growth. Nationwide marine oil output reached 15.768 million tons, increasing by 18.4 percent year on year and accounting for 17.6 percent of China's natural oil production. Marine natural gas production reached 3.07 billion cubic meters, up 11.2 percent year on year, which effectively eased up the strained supply situation of gas and oil in China.

By People's Daily Online