China's maritime economy outpaces GDP growth
Xinhua, June 23, 2015 Adjust font size:
China's maritime output has grown at a faster pace than the country's GDP in the past five years, the State Oceanic Administration (SOA) said on Tuesday.
According to its report on China's maritime development for 2015, the average annual growth rate of maritime output exceeded that of GDP by 0.22 percentage points during the 12th Five-Year Plan period (2011-2015).
The report highlighted the boom of emerging maritime industries such as manufacturing of maritime engineering equipment. China took more new manufacturing orders for such equipment in 2014 than any other country, with the orders valued at 13.9 billion U.S. dollars in total.
The country's global share of the maritime engineering equipment market rose from 24 percent in 2013 to 41 percent in 2014, according to the report.
It said China's maritime economy generated 5.99 trillion yuan (962.4 billion U.S. dollars) in 2014, a 7.7-percent increase over 2013. Its total output accounted for 9.4 percent of GDP in 2014.
The report also highlighted the threat of rising sea levels to China's low-lying coastal areas, warning that some regions risk being flooded.
It estimated that China's offshore sea level will rise by 60 to 195 millimeters by 2043 as compared to the 2013 level. Endi