QINGDAO - Over 400 marine experts and officials from 18 countries have gathered at a forum in East China's Shandong province to discuss the future of China's marine economy.

Experts from home and abroad will give speeches focusing on eight topics, including the industrialization of marine technology, oceanic environmental protection and the sustainable development of marine economies at the two-day 2011 China International Blue Economy Summit Forum, which kicked off on Friday in the coastal city of Qingdao.

"The Shandong Peninsula Blue Economic Zone will provide experience for other coastal provinces," said Du Ying, vice minister of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), while speaking at the opening ceremony of the forum.

Technological innovation is vital to the development of the marine economy zone and Shandong is willing to cooperate with oceanic institutions and universities from all over the world to develop the area, said Jiang Daming, governor of the province.

An exhibition on the planning and construction of the Shandong Peninsula Blue Economic Zone will be held during the forum.

The forum has provided a high-level international communication platform for the development of the Shandong Peninsula Blue Economic Zone since being launched in August 2009.

The zone is one of three regional ocean economic zones approved by the State Council, or China's cabinet, in April last year as pilot zones for the development of China's marine economy. The State Council on January 4 approved a development plan for the zone.

The zone covers all of Shandong's offshore territory, or 159,500 square km of ocean. It also covers 64,000 square km of land, including six prefectures and two coastal counties.