Taking the Marine Spatial Planning as a hand to build a Community of Shared Future for Mankind. The Marine Spatial Planning Forum for Silk Road and Island Countries was successfully held in Zhoushan.

From June 8th to 9th, under the guidance of Ministry of Natural Resources of the People’s Republic of China (MNR) and the People's Government of Zhejiang Province, the Marine Spatial Planning Forum for Silk Road and Island Countries, which was organized by the China Oceanic Development Foundation (CODF) was held in Zhoushan, Zhejiang. Wang Hong ,member of the Party Group of MNR and director of the State Oceanic Administration(SOA), Anna Paula Vitorino, marine minister of Portuguese, Gao Xingfu, Vice Governor of Zhejiang Province, Sun Zhihui, president of CODF, Shi Qingfeng, member of the Party Committee of MNR, Lv Bin, deputy president of CODF, Huang Zhiping, director of the Zhejiang Ocean and Fisheries Administration, He Zhongwei, mayor of the Zhoushan city, Pan Xinchun, assistant president and Secretary General of CODF and other leaders attended the forum. President Sun Zhihui presided over the opening ceremony of the forum. Wang Hong, Vitorino, Huang Zhiping, He Zhongwei and other leaders delivered speeches at the opening ceremony. More than 260 people of government officials, research institute experts and relevant people from China and 30 countries along the Maritime Silk Road attended the meeting. The forum was operated by the Zhoushan Municipal People's Government, the Zhejiang Ocean Port Development Committee, the Zhejiang Ocean and Fisheries Administration, co-organized by the National Ocean Technology Center, the Island Research Center of SOA, and the First Institute of Oceanography of SOA.

The theme of the forum is “To carry out marine spatial planning cooperation and promote sustainable development”. The purpose of the forum is to comprehensively implement the spirit of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China and Xi Jinping’s ecological civilization, promote the “Belt and Road” initiative and actively develop the partnership with silk road and island countries in marine spatial planning to share the Chinese solution in marine management and to create a Community of Shared Future for Mankind that is politically trustworthy, economically integrated and culturally inclusive.

The picture shows the forum meeting site

Wang Hong, member of the party group of MNR and director of SOA, spoke at the opening ceremony of the forum

Wang Hong extended a warm welcome to the guests from all over the world. He said that China, as one of the first countries in the world to compile and implement marine spatial planning, has formed a relatively complete marine spatial planning system after continuous exploration, practice and improvement. Focusing on the common vision of achieving sustainable development of the ocean, China has carried out extensive exchanges and cooperation with relevant coastal countries such as Cambodia, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Thailand in the concept and practice of marine spatial planning, and has achieved positive results. China looks forward to further deepening cooperation with coastal countries and regions and jointly implementing beneficial practices for implementing and improving the marine spatial planning system. He said that the Chinese government is willing to continue to provide talent and technical assistance to coastal countries, especially countries along the Maritime Silk Road and island countries, to provide a "China solution" for the preparation, implementation and evaluation of marine spatial planning; He hoped to take this forum as an opportunity with the international cooperation in marine spatial planning as the content, we will further strengthen the sharing of results and achieve common development, strengthen all-round pragmatic cooperation with relevant countries in the marine field, and establish a blue partnership of openness, tolerance, concrete pragmatism and mutual benefit.

The picture shows the Portuguese Ocean Minister Anna Paula Vitorino addressing the opening ceremony of the forum

Vice Governor of Zhejiang Provincial People's Government, Gao Xingfu, attended the opening ceremony of the forum (second from right)

Sun Zhihui, Chairman of CODF, presided over the opening ceremony of the forum

Shi Qingfeng, member of the party group of MNR, made a keynote report

Lu Bin (right), vice chairman of CODF, gave a speech at the welcome dinner

Speech by Huang Zhiping, Director of Zhejiang Ocean and Fisheries Bureau

He Zhongwei, Mayor of Zhoushan Municipal People's Government, delivered a speech

Pan Xinchun, Secretary General of CODF, made a speech at the forum

Speech by Dostin Mohamed Barlow, President of the University of Pakistan, Russell

Shi Qingfeng gave a keynote speech at the main forum on the topic of "China's Ocean Management Practice and Achievements". He introduced the overall situation and achievements of China's ocean management from the aspects of marine legal system construction, marine economic development, ecological environmental protection, and sea area use management. Shi Qingfeng pointed out that the reasons for the remarkable achievements in China's ocean management are various, and the establishment of the marine functional zoning system is indispensable. He believes that China's marine management practices can draw five inspirations from marine spatial planning. First, there must be national laws as a guarantee. Second, there must be a top-down hierarchy. Third, there must be a complete technical standard guarantee. It is necessary to have reasonable administrative law enforcement control measures to ensure that the fifth is to have monitoring and evaluation technical support.

The forum has three topics: “marine spatial planning and blue economy development”, “marine spatial planning and integrated marine management”, “marine spatial planning technical methods and capacity building”. The practice of marine spatial planning in China, development status and needs of marine spatial planning, the future international cooperation in marine spatial planning, etc. have been discussed and shared, and many consensuses have been reached, depicting the blueprint for future cooperation. Representatives from 29 countries including Malaysia, Cambodia, Bangladesh and Mozambique spoke at the forum, briefly introduced the current status of marine development and management in their country, analyzed the difficulties and problems in their own marine spatial planning, and proposed needs and aspirations to cooperate. After listening to the experts from China's marine sector, they said that from the results of China's marine spatial planning, it can be seen that the preparation of marine spatial planning is a very necessary thing to promote the development of the marine economy, optimize the structure of the marine industry, and enhance people's lives and improving marine management capabilities all play an important role; China's marine spatial planning has made great achievements, and many experiences are worth learning. They hope China can provide support for technology, personnel and capacity building.

Mies Reiter, deputy director of the Marine and Coastal Zone Protection Division of the Ministry of Environment of Cambodia, said after participating in the forum that the forum is of great significance. Although countries have national borders, natural resources have no national boundaries .All countries are faced with the problems of resources and environment of today's world. We should join hands to share how to save resources and protect the environment and the forum is a good platform. 30 countries’ experience in marine spatial planning makes him feel that he has benefited a lot.

The conference issued the “Proposal for Marine Spatial Planning Forum for Silk Road and Island Countries”. The proposal proposes to establish a cooperation and exchange mechanism for marine spatial planning between countries along the Maritime Silk Road and island countries, jointly promote marine spatial planning cooperation, share opportunities, act together, develop the marine economy, protect the blue homeland, enhance people's well-being, and build a community of shared future for mankind. The Forum hopes that CODF will provide assistance to relevant countries in the field of marine spatial planning, and as the organizer, it will regularly hold the “     Marine Spatial Planning Forum for Silk Road and Island Countries”.  It is hoped that CODF will fund relevant personnel from the relevant countries to study in the marine related profession, and fund relevant government departments and scientific research personnel to visit Chinese marine institutions as visiting scholars.

CODF is committed to promoting marine spatial planning cooperation between China and the countries along the Maritime Silk Road and island countries. Many national government departments and research institutes have expressed their willingness to cooperate with China and actively learn from the experience of China's marine functional zoning. At the forum, the first batch of marine spatial planning cooperation signing ceremony was held. CODF has signed a memorandum of cooperation or letter of intent with relevant research institutions in five countries: Thailand, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Fiji and Madagascar.

CODF signed a memorandum of cooperation with Fiji

During the meeting, the leaders of CODF held talks with representatives of 29 countries and held detailed talks on future cooperation. Representatives from Myanmar, Madagascar and other countries said that after listening to the forum, they felt the Chinese experience has made them full of expectations for the future in marine spatial planning business. They hope China can give certain support and help, and work together to carry out marine spatial planning as soon as possible.

During the forum, the China Ocean Functional Zoning Achievement Exhibition was held to show the historical progress and phased achievements of China's marine functional zoning. Since the 1980s, China has begun preparations for the investigation and study of marine functional zoning. So far, three generations of marine functional zoning have been compiled and implemented. China has established a spatial planning system for the three levels of marine functional zoning at the national, provincial, municipal, and county levels, which has risen to a basic legal system. The laws and regulations such as the Law on the Administration of the Use of Sea Areas, the Marine Environmental Protection Law and the Island Protection Law promulgated by the State clearly stipulate that all sea activities must conform to the marine functional zoning. The scope of China's marine functional zoning covers all sea areas under its jurisdiction, and clarifies the requirements for use control, sea-based control, sea area remediation, ecological protection key objectives, and environmental protection. The implementation of the marine functional zoning system scientifically delineates the marine production, living, and ecological space, effectively solving the contradiction between sea use activities, such as aquiculture, port shipping, oil and gas exploitation, tourism development, and military use, and between production and life, the contradiction between resource development and environmental protection .It also has promoted the adjustment of the marine industry structure, eliminated backward production capacity, and prioritized the development of offshore wind power, sea water desalination, oceanographic engineering equipment, marine biomedicine and other emerging industries, making contributions to regional social development and the national economic take-off.

The main representatives of the countries participating in the forum took a group photo