Yantai on fast track to boost marine economy

The coastal city of Yantai has seen rapid growth in marine industries in recent years. The city's marine economy output value increased by 10 percent to exceed 200 billion yuan ($29.8 billion) in 2017, while its fishery economy was recorded to be worth 100 billion yuan ($14.9 billion), an increase of 9 percent over the previous year.

Advanced marine engineering equipment is one of the key factors contributing to its rapid growth. Yantai has made great efforts to develop marine equipment manufacturing. Blue Whale 1, the ultra-deep-water semisubmersible drilling rig built by China Yantai CIMC Raffles Offshore, the nation's largest semisubmersible platform manufacturer, conducted successful tests in the South China Sea in May, 2017. The company also built the world's largest maritime drilling rig, Blue Whale 2, at the end of 2017.

Yantai city has developed an innovative marine biomedicine industrial cluster with an investment of 510 million ($76.1 million) supporting eight key projects. Together they constitute a collaborative marine biological health products industry chain.

The deep processing of aquatic products has greatly improved. Yantai has more than 400 aquatic product processing enterprises. Their annual product volume reaches 1.8 million tons, and is exported to 71 countries and regions. The annual export value is approaching $ 1.5 billion.

Yantai has established a solid industrial foundation in various areas including aquaculture, seed rearing, coastal tourism, marine equipment manufacturing, port logistics and new marine energy.

With the fruitful development of its industries, Yantai will speed up development of its marine economy in 2018.

Yantai will continue to improve the innovation of its three traditional major industries of marine culture tourism, modern fishing and ocean transportation logistics, and promote ocean engineering equipment manufacturing, marine biological medicine and seawater utilization.