The path to achieve high-quality development of the marine economy in the Xiamen Special Economic Zone

Located in the middle of the western shore of the Taiwan Strait and the center of the Golden Triangle in southern Fujian, Xiamen is a special economic zone approved by the State Council, as well as an important port and tourist city on the southeast coast. In the past 40 years since the construction of the special economic zone, Xiamen has taken the lead in exploring the establishment of an open economic system, focusing on expanding the development space, and gradually formed an all-round and multi-level pattern of opening up to the outside world, and the quality of economic development has been continuously improved, especially since the "13th Five-Year Plan", Xiamen has actively explored the development goal of a modern international strong city with high-quality economic development and high ecological environment, and has made great progress in promoting the development of the marine economy and building a marine ecological civilization.

Standing at a new starting point, Xiamen's marine development opportunities and challenges coexist. In order to achieve high-quality development of the marine economy, we should implement key breakthroughs and actively explore the construction of special economic zones with the characteristics of free ports.

The current situation of xiamen's marine economic development

Due to the opening up of Xiamen City, the opening up of the sea, and the development of the sea, the marine economy is one of the important engines for the overall acceleration of Xiamen's economy. During the "13th Five-Year Plan" period, Xiamen's marine economy maintained a steady growth trend, and the average annual growth rate of marine GDP was 11%. The scale of the marine economy has expanded compared with before the "13th Five-Year Plan", of which the gross marine product in 2020 will reach 140.529 billion yuan, accounting for 22% of the regional GDP, and the proportion of the marine tertiary industry will be 0.524.874.7, continuing to maintain the trend of coordinated development of the tertiary industry with the tertiary industry as the main body and the secondary industry as the mainstay.

During the "13th Five-Year Plan" period, Xiamen focused on the development of marine strategic emerging industries. In 2019 and 2020, the city's marine emerging industries achieved an added value of 50.245 billion yuan and 52.438 billion yuan respectively, accounting for 30.5% and 37.32% of the gross marine product, respectively. Marine emerging industries have become a new growth point for the development of Xiamen's marine economy, and the scale of marine biological medicine industry and marine high-end equipment manufacturing industry has been expanding. At present, Xiamen has become the largest biological and new pharmaceutical industry base in the southeast coast.

Through the implementation of the national marine economic innovation and development regional demonstration project, the ability of marine science and technology innovation has been continuously improved. During the "13th Five-Year Plan" period, Xiamen focused on building a scientific and technological innovation platform, and built the world's largest deep-sea biological gene bank, the country's largest marine pharmaceutical biological germplasm resource bank, and the first marine "double creation base" in China. In addition, Xiamen has built 3 new academician workstations, 4 enterprise research and development centers, 17 new marine innovation and research and development platforms, and has completed the transformation of 96 research and development achievements, formed 54 landmark achievements, applied for the formulation of 32 standards, and added 488 new marine patents.

As an important region for cross-strait integration and development, the Xiamen area of the China (Fujian) Pilot Free Trade Zone has made positive progress in cooperation with Taiwan, and cross-strait cooperation in modern fisheries, marine biological medicine and health food, yacht manufacturing, coastal tourism and other fields has been deepening. Xiamen is home to the secretariat of the Local Government Network for Sustainable Development in the Coastal Zone of East Asia (PNLG) and has been working with the Partnership for the Management of the Marine Environment in East Asia (PEMSEA) regional organization for more than two decades. During the "13th Five-Year Plan" period, Xiamen vigorously promoted the construction of the China-ASEAN Maritime Cooperation Center. At present, the "China-ASEAN Ocean Cooperation Center Big Data Project", "China-ASEAN Marine Park Ecological Service Platform Construction Project" and "China-ASEAN Marine Industry Technology Service Platform Project" are steadily advancing.

Problems and challenges in the development of Xiamen's marine economy

First, the competitiveness of the marine industry is not strong. Xiamen's marine emerging industries have developed rapidly, but the current scale is still small, and there are relatively few leading enterprises and fist products with national influence, which is insufficient to support the overall economic development of Xiamen. Projects in emerging industries such as marine biological medicine and products, marine high-end equipment manufacturing, etc. often have the characteristics of long cycle, large investment and high risk, while the development of related industries is difficult to extend, and the advantages are not obvious. At present, the Xiamen marine high-tech industry demonstration base and the national "science and technology to revitalize the sea" marine biological industry demonstration base are scattered in haicang biomedical port, Tong'an light industry food industrial zone, Xiang'an torch high-tech zone and other comprehensive parks, the lack of special marine industrial parks, technology, talent, environment, location and other aspects have not been effectively integrated, the existing industrial chain is relatively short, some characteristic industrial chains have not yet formed a scale advantage. Due to frequent marine disasters, less effective asset collateral and other reasons, marine finance has limited support for the industry, and the existing financial products such as marine venture capital funds and "marine guarantee loans" are not high in market acceptance and participation, failing to give full play to the supporting role of the marine industry, and the diversified financing mechanism of the marine industry needs to be improved.

Second, the advantages of science and technology are insufficient. Xiamen's marine science and technology strength ranks in the forefront of the country, but its scientific and technological advantages have yet to be fully utilized. Marine high-tech industry project library reserves are insufficient, the upstream and downstream enterprises and institutions of the industrial chain are not closely united, there are not many large-scale, influential high-quality projects; the incentive mechanism for the transformation of marine scientific and technological achievements needs to be improved, the enthusiasm for the transformation of technical research achievements in Xiamen is not high, the policy pertinence and intensity of encouraging scientific researchers to transform scientific and technological achievements still need to be improved, the status of enterprise innovation is not prominent enough, compared with other coastal cities, the attractiveness of Xiamen's talent introduction policy needs to be further exerted.

Third, the carrying pressure of marine resources and environment is relatively large. Xiamen's sea area is about 355 square kilometers, the coastline is 194 kilometers, and the per capita shoreline share is only 42% of the level of Fujian Province. Affected by the upstream Jiulong River, the task of controlling the total amount of pollutants entering the sea from land sources is arduous, and Xiamen is facing greater pressure on marine ecological environmental protection and restoration, and the space for improving the quality of the marine environment is limited.

Fourth, competition between cities has become increasingly fierce. Within the scope of Fujian Province, the development of surrounding coastal cities such as Fuzhou, Quanzhou and Zhangzhou has brought opportunities to Xiamen, but also made Xiamen face the challenge of hollowing out some industries; nationwide, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Qingdao, Ningbo, Dalian and other places have successively deployed the construction of global marine center cities, which means that Xiamen will face more fierce competition in sea-related projects, industries, technologies, talents, and systems.

The path to promote the high-quality development of the marine economy

During the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, Xiamen should give full play to its advantages in special economic zones, pilot free trade zones, independent innovation zones, comprehensive reform pilot zones, AND BRICS innovation bases, etc., focus on making up for shortcomings, seize development opportunities, actively explore the construction of special economic zones with free port characteristics, and promote the high-quality development of the marine economy. Specifically, breakthroughs should be achieved from the following aspects.

The first is to optimize and expand the development pattern of marine industry and build a marine high-tech industrial park. For the three marine industry clusters that have basically taken shape, namely the Haicang Sea-related Park, the Tongji Sea-related Park and the Xiang'an Sea-related Park, it is necessary to further enhance their marine industry agglomeration level, optimize the existing spatial layout, accelerate the construction of a modern marine industry system, and on the basis of the above-mentioned "three parks", comprehensively consider the development potential of the marine industry and the bearing capacity of resources and environment, build the marine economic development belt around the bay and the marine economic development belt around the island, promote the upgrading of Gaoqi Fishing Port and the planning and construction of The Comprehensive Fishing Port in Europe, and introduce high-quality, Marine high-tech industrial projects with certain influence will focus on building marine high-tech industrial parks and accelerate the formation of a spatial pattern of marine economic development of "three parks, two belts, two ports and one district".

The second is to further strengthen the emerging marine industry and actively promote the construction of a modern marine industry system. In the emerging industries that have a certain foundation, such as marine biological medicine and products, marine high-end equipment manufacturing, etc., we will cultivate leading enterprises and fist products with competitiveness and influence. Accelerate the development of marine information and digital industries, promote the deep integration of "smart ocean" projects with the marine industry, and strive to promote the demonstration and application of electronic information and artificial intelligence in port logistics, shipping and transportation, ocean-going scientific expeditions, resource exploration, environmental monitoring, disaster early warning, sea area planning and other fields. Enhance the development level of the sea-related financial services industry, promote the construction of specialized sea-related financial institutions, attract all kinds of sea-related financial service enterprises to settle in Xiamen, further give play to the guiding role of the marine industry fund, make it develop into a major marine project investment platform in Xiamen, innovate sea-related financial products, expand the business scope of "marine guarantee loans", enhance their market acceptance and participation, and effectively solve the problem of financing difficulties for sea-related small and medium-sized enterprises. Promote the integration of advanced technologies, excellent talents and environment, location and other resources in the marine field, build a cross-regional marine strategic emerging industrial cluster, and form a marine industry agglomeration effect.

The third is to promote the transformation of marine scientific and technological achievements and create a highland for marine scientific and technological innovation. Implement the national, Fujian and Xiamen science and technology innovation policies, strengthen policy coordination in finance, taxation, industry, finance, government procurement, social platforms, etc., and provide a more perfect policy environment and efficient and convenient services for the transformation of scientific and technological achievements. Integrate and coordinate Xiamen's existing marine scientific and technological resources and research and development strength, and actively introduce talents and projects in the field of marine high technology. Improve the transformation mechanism and platform construction of marine scientific and technological achievements, further enhance the leading role of sea-related universities, scientific research institutes, sea-related parks, and enterprise research and development centers in scientific and technological innovation, establish enterprise-led docking platforms and mechanisms, establish a market-oriented mechanism for marine technology innovation, and give full play to Xiamen's advantages in marine science and technology.

The fourth is to strengthen the protection and restoration of marine ecology and further deepen the construction of marine ecological civilization. In order to conform to the ocean and protect the ocean as the basic guideline, the natural state of the bay shoreline and ecosystem protection and upgrading, the artificial marine environment engineering for scientific maintenance and management. Earnestly improve the monitoring, early warning and evaluation mechanism of the marine ecological environment, further promote the joint prevention and treatment of land and sea environmental pollution, and implement stricter control over land-based pollutants entering the sea. Innovate the value realization mechanism of marine ecological products, implement the linkage of protection, restoration, compensation and law enforcement processes, and accelerate the construction of a comprehensive management system for the marine ecological environment.

Fifth, give full play to the advantages of location and actively expand the space for cooperation in the marine field. Xiamen should give full play to its role as a central city in the Southwest Fujian Coordinated Development Zone, strengthen cooperation with Quanzhou and Zhangzhou in the fields of marine industry, marine science and technology, marine ecological environmental protection restoration, and disaster prevention and mitigation, and at the same time accelerate cross-strait exchanges and cooperation in the fields of modern fisheries, marine emerging industries, marine culture and creativity, and marine ecological protection. Relying on platforms such as the East Asian Coastal Zone Sustainable Development Local Government Network, the "China-ASEAN" Marine Cooperation Platform, the Xiamen International Ocean Week, and the APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) Center for Sustainable Development of the Ocean, Xiamen should further strengthen cooperation with countries along the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road in terms of integrated marine management, marine science and technology innovation, and marine disaster prevention and mitigation.

(Author Affilications:Xiamen Municipal Marine Development Bureau, Institute of Marine Development Strategy, Ministry of Natural Resources)