The main construction of Asia's first cylindrical floating production, storage and offloading facility, designed and built by China, is finished on Dec 6 in Qingdao, Shandong province. [Photo/WeChat account: gh_204dae95445b]

Qingdao in East China's Shandong province recently issued 18 measures to significantly increase the scale, size and number of marine enterprises.

The new policy, titled Ocean Star 18 Measures, is divided into four parts, focusing on the development of six key industries: modern fisheries, marine equipment, marine pharmaceuticals and bioproducts, marine new energy, marine tourism and shipping finance.

It has not only set doubling goals for emerging marine enterprises, "specialized, refined and new" enterprises, and leading chain enterprises in the next two years, but also provides targeted support to meet the differentiated needs of marine enterprises in terms of funds, technology, talent, policies and platforms at different stages of development.

The first part of the new policy aims to double the scale of emerging marine enterprises and achieve a total of 3,000 marine enterprises above designated size by 2025, further expanding the foundation for the high-quality development of the marine economy.

The second part proposes having 900 high-quality "specialized, refined and new" marine enterprises by 2025, including 18 champion enterprises in marine manufacturing, 50 "little giant" companies in the marine industry, 35 listed marine enterprises, 80 marine "young eagles" enterprises and 700 marine high-tech enterprises. This will further strengthen the backbone of the marine economy and create a vibrant space for fierce competition among "specialized, refined and new" marine enterprises.

The third part focuses on increasing the number of leading chain enterprises in the marine industry. By selecting and nurturing 12 representative chain enterprises in six major industries, Qingdao is to play a leading role in the high-quality development of the marine sector.