Tips offered for marine economy development

The 2019 International Marine Economy Cooperation and Development Forum, a highlight of the 2019 Marine Economy Expo, will be held in the city tomorrow and Wednesday.

Organized by the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade Shenzhen Committee, the forum brings together more than 70 leaders in the marine economy from the business and academic world along with public personalities at the vanguard of thinking on the prospects for the marine economy.

More than 400 business participants closely related to the marine economy will participate in in-depth discussions on how to promote the sustainable development of the global marine economy as well as the growing role of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, and advise China and Shenzhen on how to build a world-class marine center city.

The guests include Paul Holthus, founding president & CEO of World Ocean Council, Kenneth Racombo, the principal secretary for Blue Economy in the Office of the Vice President, Government of the Seychelles, Carl-Christian Schmidt, chair of the Nordic Marine Think Tank in Denmark, Torsten Thiele, an academic of the Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies in Germany, and James Standerwick, CEO of Maritime London Ltd.

The forum will explore new opportunities created in the domain of the ocean economy by technological developments, while highlighting the sustainability challenges involved in the development of this sector and identifying ways to address these challenges.

Claude Smadja, president of Smadja & Smadja Strategic Advisory Inc. and managing director of the World Economic Forum from 1995 to 2001, said the marine economy has been under the pressure of tremendous changes with respect to the hot issue of the sustainability of resources and application of technologies.

“Shenzhen is well placed to become a global platform for the development of the marine economy, because it is a technology hotbed and has a tremendous number of high-tech companies involved in technologies related to the marine economy,” said Smadja in an interview prior to the opening of the forum.

“The marine economy is esteemed to become another pillar of economic growth for Shenzhen and for the whole Chinese economy,” said Smadja.

“I think there are three very important priorities that companies involved in the marine economy should pursue, especially in China. One is to increase the interaction between Chinese and foreign companies. The interaction could become a win-win for foreign and Chinese companies that could develop the sector at the global level. The second priority is for the Chinese companies to demonstrate by their actions that they are at the forefront to protect the health of the ocean and that they are at the forefront on the issue of sustainability,” said Smadja. “The third priority is to integrate as fast as possible the new technologies in all the sectors relating to the marine economy because as we said before, the fast introduction of these technologies will help the fight against climate change and the fight for the health of the ocean. They will increase productivity, efficiency and allow all the sectors of marine economy to do a better job, in a much more profitable and sustainable way.”