Annual event to boost marine-related businesses and activities

The 2018 World Ocean Week — running Nov 2-8 in Xiamen, Fujian province — focuses on integration in China’s Belt and Road Initiative and furthers the host city’s maritime cooperation with countries along the maritime silk routes, according to organizers.

Themed on promoting sustainable marine development, this year’s event includes a series of marine-related activities such as the International Maritime Affairs High-end Forum, the China-ASEAN Think Tank Dialogue and South-South Cooperation Ocean Forum.

The event has four parts: an international ocean forum, ocean-related exhibitions and project matchmaking activities, an oceanthemed carnival, and introductions to oceanrelated knowledge and theory.

Four international organizations — the Representative Office of the United Nations Development Program China, Partnerships in Environmental Management for the Seas of East Asia, The IOC Sub-Commission for the Western Pacific, and the Ocean Policy Research Institute in Japan — are pooling their experiences at the event.

They are joined by ASEAN countries — including Thailand, the Philippines, Indonesia, Cambodia and Vietnam — which will also seek cooperation in marine ecological protection and integrated coastal management.

Aside from the forums, marine fisheries project matchmaking activities for developing countries will also feature at the event.

The fair, on commercializing marine scientific and technological achievements, is for the first time being presented at the Xiamen International Convention and Exhibition Center, which boasts an area of 4,000 square meters and features over 100 exhibition stands.

Various pavilions — including those on marine biomedicines and products, marine vessels and high-end equipment, seawater desalination and high-tech marine services — showcase the results of cutting-edge innovation.

Xiamen, famous for its attractive seascape, has emerged as a magnet for domestic and foreign tourists.

To ignite its vitality, Xiamen has put together an ocean-themed package of activities to appeal to tourists’ senses of sight, smell, sound, touch and taste. These include sand art and play, a seafood festival, a kite festival, a yacht race and shopping in Aluohai City Plaza.

The ocean week also hosts ocean culture activities, to help people have access to the worlds of science and technology and knowledge of ocean.

Laboratories at Xiamen University, the Third Institute of Oceanography of State Oceanic Administration, and the Xiamen Science and Technology Museum, will be open to the public, positioned as science centers.

The World Ocean Week has been held in Xiamen for 12 consecutive years.

Last year, the maritime event attracted more than 2,000 company representatives and 200 officials and academics from 43 countries and regions along the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road.