On Oct. 12, 2020, upon the 40^thanniversary of the founding of Shenzhen Special Economic Zone, Greater Bay Area Shenzhen Research Institute, National New Material Industry Development Strategic Advisory Committee, Shenzhen University (“Material Committee Shenzhen Institute”), in conjunction with Tianjin Research Institute and New Material Online, convened the “Greater Bay Area Marine Biomass and Marine Material Development and Application Trend and Strategy Seminar”. 37 experts from 20 organizations at home and abroad, including Xie Heping, a fellow with the Chinese Academy of Engineering and a professor with Shenzhen University, and Yang Jun, a fellow with Canadian Academy of Engineering, attended the seminar.

With coastlines measuring 18,000 km in length, China is a “big ocean nation” but not an “ocean power”. “Build an ocean power” is a national strategy specified by the Eighteenth National Congress of the CPC. Ocean is the path from “Made in China” to “Created in China”, and a path leading to rejuvenation of the nation. In the document “Opinions of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council on supporting Shenzhen to build a demonstration zone of socialism with Chinese characteristics” released in August 2019, Shenzhen is planned to be transformed into a global ocean center. On the meeting, Zhu Caizhen, a researcher with Shenzhen University, reported the work progress of Material Committee Shenzhen Institute in the last year since its founding. Dr. Xu Jian, a special term professor with Shenzhen University and executive Vice Director of Material Committee delivered a keynote speech. The contents of his report include the exploitations of marine resources/energy and the applications of marine engineering materials, the development of South China Sea, the development of the Greater Bay Area and Shenzhen, and the agenda, methodology and targets of 2021-2035.

Attendees of the seminar agreed that ocean technology strategy shall be focused on oceans, based on good understanding of current strength, oriented to demands, and geared to the future. For the five research directions namely marine foods, marine pharmaceuticals, marine materials, marine engineering and marine energies, Xie Heping, a fellow with the Chinese Academy of Engineering and a professor with Shenzhen University, thought that attention shall be focused on “the development of marine foods/marine lives/marine pharmaceuticals, the development of marine functional materials and marine engineering materials, and comprehensive exploitations of marine energies/resources”. Experts on the seminar spoke highly of the development of Greater Bay Area marine talent and tech base (such as Shenzhen Marine College to be established by Shenzhen University), the development of high-efficiency marine substance inspection platform (such as the biomass and marine material inspection stations of Shenzhen Light Source), and the introduction and education of cross-discipline and cross-field composite marine scientists, etc.