Yang Zhen, vice-chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) National Committee and executive vice-chairman of the Central Committee of the Chinese Peasants and Workers Democratic Party, led a team from the Committee on Proposals of the CPPCC National Committee to East China's Zhejiang province from Aug 30 to Sept 3. The team surveyed work on promoting high-quality development of the marine economy, one of the key proposals to be handled this year, in the province. 

The team visited universities, research institutions, fishing ports, factories and enterprises, where they talked with scientists, entrepreneurs, front-line workers and grassroots representatives to solicit opinions and suggestions in this regard. 

The team acknowledged the remarkable progress China has achieved in the marine economy under the strong guidance of the central leadership. In the first half of this year, China's gross marine product reached 4.9 trillion yuan ($688.5 billion), a year-on-year increase of 5.6 percent. This demonstrates the continued contribution of the marine economy to stabilizing national economic growth and ensuring economic security. 

The team stressed the importance of leveraging the advantages of the Communist Party of China Central Committee's centralized and unified leadership, along with the system for mobilizing resources nationwide, to promote the high-quality development of the marine economy. More efforts should be made to build a comprehensive framework for marine economic development, to achieve high-quality development of the marine economy driven by science and technology, to propel continued optimization of the marine industrial structure, to improve the marine ecological protection and supervision system, and to participate in global ocean governance, the team added. 

It is essential to fully utilize the CPPCC's role as a specialized consultative body, intensify research efforts on addressing institutional and systemic issues that hinder the high-quality development of the marine economy, and pool expertise and strength for the high-quality development of the marine economy, the team concluded.