China's State Council said that Fujian province is the new ocean economy pilot area, the fourth in the country after Shandong, Zhejiang and Guangdong, a statement on the provincial government's website said on Friday.

The government said that the GDP of marine industries will grow 14 percent annually to 730 billion yuan ($116.9 billion) by 2015.

Fujian province will be developed into a leading ocean economy by 2020.

The central government introduced 39 support policies on areas such as investment, taxation, finance and others.

Economists believe that emerging industries — such as marine engineering equipment, ocean biochemistry, and ocean tourism — will have great potential in addition to traditional industries like fishing and petrochemicals processing.

lijiabao@chinadaily.com.cn