Over the last five years, Yantai has established national and provincial-level marine science research centers, universities, laboratories, and R&D facilities and is now building facilities that provide technical backing for developing the marine sector.

In 2006, the city founded the Yantai Institute of Coastal Zone Research, affiliated with the Chinese Academy of Sciences, specially for studying ocean resources and the environment.

Two years later, it built a technology transformation center, also as a part of the Academy of Sciences, then another, affiliated with the University of Shanghai for Science and Technology.

In 2009, the China International Marine Container Group (CIMC) chose Yantai for its research center for ocean-related projects.

And, last year, the Yantai government worked with the China Institute of Atomic Energy set up a research center for nuclear power facilities.

The city now has nine research centers on ocean technology, which employ more than 1,000 people and has had various achievements in ocean science over the last five years.

Yantai has become an important manufacturing base for ocean equipment.

On October 21, Yantai CIMC Raffles Offshore Ltd, an ocean engineering company, delivered its Coslinnovator semi-submersible drilling rig to Drilling Europe AS, a wholly-owned subsidiary of China Oilfield Services Ltd.

The Yantai government is also encouraging fisheries to cooperate with research centers on a market-oriented development system.

It now has 15 national and provincial-level technology centers and two aquatic breeding centers.

Over the next five years, it plans to focus on developing products in renewable resources, marine equipment, and aquatic products processing sectors.

The city will continue to look for high-caliber people from China and abroad to improve its research and technology. It also wants to add 20 research centers and labs and three marine economy bases by the end of 2015.

Technology has helped Yantai`s marine economy a lot, and last year, output in that sector was worth 8.87 billion yuan ($1.4 billion), a year-on-year increase of 17.73 percent.

Thanks to its advantageous position in Bohai Bay, Yantai has plenty of wind power potential. It already has a combined wind power capacity of 600,000 kilowatts.

Changdao, an island off Yantai, plans to build a national ocean energy base that can generate 1 million kW in wind power. There is also a 560-million-yuan wind power project, backed by the by Datang Corp, under construction in Laizhou, a satellite city of Yantai.

By Zhao Ruixue (China Daily)