General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized that “advancing Chinese – style modernization must drive the high – quality development of the marine economy and blaze a path of strengthening the nation through maritime development with Chinese characteristics”. He has also issued important instructions on Guangdong’s efforts to build a powerful marine province on multiple occasions. Zhuhai has thoroughly studied and comprehended General Secretary Xi Jinping’s important expositions on the maritime power strategy and the spirits of his important speeches and instructions for Guangdong and Zhuhai. Adhering to the ocean as a strategic priority for high – quality development, Zhuhai took the lead in proposing and promoting the construction of “new maritime infrastructure”, striving to make contributions and take the lead in serving the building of a maritime power.
Strengthening Through Maritime Development and Consolidating the Ideological Foundation for Building a Powerful Marine City
When inspecting Guangdong in April 2023, General Secretary Xi Jinping required that “we should strengthen the overall planning of land and sea, promote mutual support between mountains and seas, optimize the overall layout of ports, industries and cities, strengthen the protection of the marine ecosystem, and fully build a powerful marine province”. As a crucial position for Guangdong to comprehensively promote the construction of a powerful marine province and build a “new maritime Guangdong”, Zhuhai shoulders the mission of developing into a regional marine center city. We will effectively translate the important arrangements of the Party Central Committee on “managing and developing the ocean” and the specific requirements of the CPC Guangdong Provincial Committee for building a “new maritime Guangdong” into concrete actions for Zhuhai to build a powerful marine city.
Developing the marine economy is a historical heritage rooted in Zhuhai’s maritime genes. The name “Zhuhai” is derived from the meaning of “the estuary where the Pearl River flows into the South China Sea”. Since ancient times, it has been an important route of the Maritime Silk Road. Endowed with unique natural advantages, Zhuhai boasts the largest marine area among cities in the Guangdong – Hong Kong – Macao Greater Bay Area, is known as the “City of Hundreds of Islands”, and ranks among the top in Guangdong Province in terms of the marine resource abundance index. The birth and development of Zhuhai have always been closely linked to the ocean. In the future, it will surely thrive by relying on the ocean and strengthen itself through maritime development, injecting strong “blue momentum” into Zhuhai’s modernization drive.
Developing the marine economy is an inevitable requirement for Zhuhai to serve the building of a maritime power. The Guangdong – Hong Kong – Macao Greater Bay Area, with its vast sea area, abundant resources and prominent strategic position, serves as a key gateway connecting the world and a core fulcrum of the national maritime strategy. Guarding the vital estuary of the Pearl River, Zhuhai is the only city on the Chinese mainland connected to Hong Kong and Macao by roads and bridges. It holds 57% of the sea area within Guangdong Province’s territorial sea baseline, and the Wanshan Archipelago under its jurisdiction lies at the geographical center of the Guangdong – Hong Kong – Macao Greater Bay Area and China’s southern marine economic circle. Zhuhai must give play to its advantages in marine resources, fully implement major strategies such as the protection and development of South China Sea resources and the safeguarding of national maritime rights and interests, and continuously expand its “blue circle of friends” featuring open cooperation and mutual benefit.
Developing the marine economy is a key pillar for Zhuhai to achieve high – quality development. In recent years, Zhuhai has continuously improved its urban port and shipping functions, boasting 10 Class – A national ports, 7 Class – B national ports and the Gaolan Port, a 100 – million – ton deep – water port. It has promoted the transformation and upgrading of marine – related industries towards new and stronger directions. The ratio of the primary, secondary and tertiary marine industries stands at 3.6:37.7:58.7, and new quality productive forces, such as cross – sea low – altitude economy and marine new energy, are being cultivated at an accelerated pace. At this new starting point of the new journey, Zhuhai must accelerate the transformation of its marine economy from “scale growth” to “advantage creation”, and build an important growth engine for high – quality development.
Breaking New Ground Through Innovation and Exploring a New Paradigm for Marine Economic Development
In economic development, infrastructure construction always takes precedence, which applies equally to the sea as it does to the land. As China’s economic activities expand from land to the ocean and even the deep sea, there is an urgent need for a systematic, forward – looking and pioneering layout of a new maritime infrastructure system to provide solid support for the development of the marine economy. Relying on platforms such as marine pastures, Zhuhai has built new maritime infrastructure, strengthened the in – depth integration of various maritime platforms with island resources, and continuously improved the soft and hard conditions supporting the development of the marine economy.
- Emphasizing the application of new technologies to consolidate the digital foundation of infrastructure. With digital infrastructure as the framework, Zhuhai has realized the real – time collection and processing of marine data through IoT sensing devices and edge computing technologies, and explored the construction of a digital ocean system featuring real – time perception and efficient transmission, thus addressing problems such as the fragmentation of traditional maritime infrastructure and isolated information silos.
- Emphasizing the expansion of new functions to unlock the diversified value of maritime platforms. Faced with the conflict between the growing demand for sea use and the scarcity of maritime space, Zhuhai has innovated the comprehensive utilization of maritime platforms. By relying on facilities such as marine pastures and offshore wind power platforms, it has added equipment including relay communication stations, environmental monitoring terminals, and small – scale energy and energy storage devices. Without redundant construction, it has expanded composite functions such as meteorological early warning, ecological monitoring, emergency communication, and clean energy supply, realizing the strategic value of “integrating defense capabilities into maritime activities and incorporating protection into fishery operations”.
- Emphasizing the cultivation of new industries to create new momentum for the marine economy. By leveraging new maritime infrastructure to create new scenarios, Zhuhai has accelerated the intelligent upgrading of “developing the sea and raising fisheries”, promoted the cluster – based development of emerging industries such as marine biomedicine, marine new energy, and comprehensive utilization of seawater, actively fostered modern marine service industries, and promoted the mutual promotion and enhancement of industrial technology in the marine field.
- Emphasizing the exploration of new models to expand the path of integrated land – sea development. For a long time, marine development has not formed a mature model similar to that on land. Zhuhai is reshaping the layout of productive forces and accelerating the exploration of a complete set of effective overall development models in the marine field, similar to those on land. It has promoted the coordinated construction of platforms such as underwater intelligent computing centers and land – sea data exchange centers, smoothed the channels for industrial linkage, functional coordination, and resource sharing, and explored new models such as “land – based data with marine computing” and “Macao – based data with Zhuhai computing”, so as to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of overall land – sea planning.
Planning for the Deep Blue and Leading High – Quality Marine Economic Development Through “New Maritime Infrastructure”
Looking ahead, Zhuhai’s greatest advantage and potential lie in the ocean. Adhering to the strategy of developing the ocean and strengthening through maritime development, Zhuhai will start from five key areas: facilities, space, science and technology, industry, and ecology, further implement the working system of driving marine economic development through “new maritime infrastructure”, and strive to write a new chapter in building a powerful marine city.
- Focusing on three types of facilities, namely information, integration, and innovation, to consolidate new support for marine development. We will improve marine information infrastructure, develop communication networks such as 5G base stations, satellite remote sensing, and intelligent buoys, and accelerate the integration, sharing, and development of data. We will deploy marine integrated infrastructure, promote the construction of smart ports and comprehensive marine pasture platforms, and cultivate a green energy engine at sea. We will plan marine innovation infrastructure, promote the application of low – altitude equipment in scenarios such as island commuting and maritime rescue, and smooth the three – dimensional economic link between the sky and the ocean.
- Taking the mutually reinforcing development of parks, ports, and urban areas as the path to build a new pattern of overall land – sea planning. We will explore the construction of a “Maritime High – tech Zone”, promote the development of “Maritime Industrial Parks” and “Maritime Unmanned Equipment Zones”, and build a pilot zone for overall land – sea planning. We will enhance the service functions of ports, promote the in – depth integration of Zhuhai’s “tangible resources” with Macao’s “intangible resources”, and build a modern port system. We will strengthen the layout of ports, industries, and cities, and based on the geological characteristics of the river estuary, establish an integrated urban spatial system integrating mountains, seas, rivers, ports, and cities.
- Taking the integrated development of education, science and technology, and talent as the key to forging new advantages in scientific and technological innovation. We will strengthen educational support, and rely on the resources of universities in Zhuhai to increase efforts in cultivating marine talents. We will strengthen scientific and technological support, accelerate the construction of the National Comprehensive Marine Test Site (Zhuhai), jointly build joint laboratories with universities in Hong Kong and Macao, develop a marine scientific research hub, and attract enterprises to “conduct tests in Zhuhai and launch production based on the test site”. We will strengthen talent support, introduce strategic scientists, leading scientists and technicians, and innovative teams from around the world, and build a marine talent echelon consisting of “high – end and skilled talents”.
- Taking the interlinked development of three industries, namely marine pastures, marine manufacturing, and marine services, as the engine to activate new industrial momentum. We will build modern marine pastures, improve the capacity for independent supply of feed, seedlings, and intelligent aquaculture, and develop fishing port economic zones featuring the integrated development of the primary, secondary, and tertiary industries. We will further develop marine manufacturing, build an industrial chain integrating seawater desalination and offshore wind power, and improve the marine engineering equipment manufacturing system. We will promote the integration and upgrading of marine services, vigorously develop modern shipping, marine finance, law, data, and other service industries, and boost the vigorous development of modern marine service industries.
- Taking the coordinated governance of the ocean, islands, and coastal areas as the core to set a new example in marine governance. We will enhance the capacity for coordinated marine governance, build a multi – source integrated disaster prevention and mitigation network and a digital twin platform for “Blue Zhuhai”, and achieve full – time three – dimensional monitoring of the marine environment. We will develop the most beautiful island groups, effectively connect and integrate well – known onshore cultural and tourism resources such as the Lovers’ Road and Chimelong Ocean Kingdom with the abundant marine and island resources, maximize the dual ecological and economic value, and continuously stimulate the vitality, appeal, and innovation of the marine city.
