A view of Ningbo, East China's Zhejiang province. [Photo/cnnb.com.cn]

Ningbo recently announced that it will set up a national key lab to develop marine new materials as part of efforts to drive growth in the local marine economy.

As a coastal city in East China's Zhejiang province, Ningbo has rich marine resources. The city has a sea area of about 8,000 square kilometers and a coastline of roughly 1,677 kilometers. It is also studded with 611 islets with a total area of about 260 square kilometers.

Ningbo has in recent years achieved remarkable results in marine economy development.

The scale of the city's marine economy had amounted to 685 billion yuan ($105.38 billion) as of the end of 2021. Its gross ocean product (GOP) was 206.17 billion yuan last year, making up 20.7 percent of the provincial total, according to official data.

In addition, the city is home to 18 research organs involved in the marine field, including the Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology & Engineering of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Ningbo University and the Ningbo Ocean Research Institute.

In late March, the local government unveiled a five-year development plan for its marine economy. According to the plan, the city will strive to increase its gross ocean product (GOP) to above 320 billion yuan by 2025 and have it account for 25 percent of the total in Zhejiang.

In addition, local authorities have set the goal of making more than 100 breakthroughs in marine technologies and obtaining 4,000 new patents in this regard.