New area status to power growth in Qingdao

Officials and business leaders in Qingdao, Shandong province, are relishing a boost to the coastal city's maritime sector after the State Council approved the launch of the Qingdao West Coast New Area in June, making it the ninth State-level economic development zone in China joining the ranks of new areas such as Pudong in Shanghai and Binhai in Tianjin.

"The launch of the new area will provide more power for our growth since authorities have rolled out a string of measures to boost the infrastructure and innovation," Li Tongyu, chairman of the Qingdao Bright Moon Seaweed Group Co Ltd, told reporters at the China Coast Miles event organized by the State Oceanic Administration.

Li said the authority has already drafted plans to build a maritime biotechnology industry park, with a total land area of 66.7 hectares, in the new area.

The total output value of the area's biotech industry is expected to exceed 10 billion yuan ($1.63 billion) when the industry park is completed.

The favorable policies to boost the maritime economy in the new area will also help the company to speed up the research and development of new products, he said.

Li Yongjin, director with the ocean and fishery bureau in the new area, said the authority is looking to further boost its deep-water fishing operations after the launch of the new area.

The new area will build another 40 deep-sea fishing vessels in the next few years, and is planning to launch a fishery industry park that can receive 3 to 5 million metric tons of fish every year from fishing boats.

The yearly trade volume of fishing industry will reach 60 billion yuan when the industry park is completed, according to the fishery authority.

The new area is also looking to further develop the Dongjiakou port in southern Qingdao into a national shipping hub for bulk cargo and energy, with a designated number of 112 berths and yearly cargo handling capacity of 370 million tons, the authority said.

The positive effect of the new area has already been felt by Qingdao Haixi Heavy-Duty Machinery, a producer of mobile offshore accommodation platforms and gantry cranes.

Zhu Shengkai, deputy general manager of the company, said the company has so far received 10 orders for mobile offshore accommodation platforms from the Middle East. Each of the offshore platforms costs 200 million yuan.

"The new area has enabled the clustering of heavy-duty machinery industries. It is now much easier for us to find the sub-suppliers for our equipment," he said.

The Qingdao West Coast New Area, covering 2,096 square km of land and about 5,000 square km of ocean, is the second National New Area dedicated to the development of the maritime industries, following the Zhoushan Archipelago New Area in Zhejiang province, established in 2011.

Wang Hong, deputy director with the State Oceanic Administration, said in a forum in Qingdao on Thursday that the trial of maritime economic zones could provide experience for the country's maritime economic structural reform.

In 2013, China's maritime industries generated 5.43 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 7.6 percent, according to the State Oceanic Administration. The gross oceanic product accounted for 9.5 percent of China's GDP in 2013, and more than 35 million people were employed in maritime-related jobs.