QINGDAO, Sep 9 : The 2025 Global Ocean Development Forum opened in the Chinese city of Qingdao West Coast New Area, drawing nearly 700 participants from 68 countries and regions to hash out collaboration across marine economy, technology, comprehensive governance and culture — all in a push to boost maritime prosperity.
Hosted jointly by the People’s Government of Shandong Province and the Ministry of Natural Resources, this forum bears the theme “Let’s Sea our Future – Developing a Sustainable Marine Economy for a Thriving Ocean”.
It features an opening ceremony and main forum, a dialogue session among mayors of coastal cities, four parallel forums, and five featured events. The agenda covers topics related to the UN’s “Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development”, along with key focus areas including high-quality development of the marine economy, marine science and technology innovation, marine ecological governance, green shipping transformation, marine biomedicine R&D, deep-sea resource exploration, and the cultivation of young marine talents.
At the opening ceremony, the Secretariat of the UN Ocean Decade “Coastal Cities” Platform was announced for establishment, with the simultaneous release of such outcome documents as 2025 China Ocean Development Index, Report on Marine Ecological Status of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area in 2024 and Qingdao Initiative on Marine Young Talents.
Five events are being held alongside the forum, including the 2025 East Asia Marine Expo, 2025 Robocup Asia-Pacific Qingdao International Invitational, First UN Ocean Decade Marine Ecological Protection and Restoration Competition, three international training programs, and International Ocean-themed Calligraphy and Painting Exhibition.
