BEIJING, Oct. 29, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- The 2026 Global Ocean Development Forum was held recently in Qingdao, a coastal city of east China's Shandong Province, aiming to boost the sustainable development of the marine economy.

The forum adopted a "1+1+4+8" framework, consisting of the opening ceremony and main forum, an ocean civilization-themed dialogue session, four parallel forums and eight side events.

During the main forum, a number of key outcomes were released, including two reports entitled "World Marine Economy Development Report 2026" and "China Ocean Development Index Report 2026".

The former covers nine major global marine industries and nearly 30 coastal countries, illustrating the development of the global marine economy in 2025 to offer references for ocean economic policy-making, corporate investment decisions and marine economic research.

The latter assesses six dimensions including economy and people's livelihood, sci-tech innovation, and ecological environment, with the China Ocean Development Index up 2.5 percent year on year to 132.3 in 2025.

Apart from the reports, multi-source datasets for global marine environmental monitoring were unveiled at the main forum.

By integrating multiple monitoring means such as remote sensing and on-site observation with AI calibration, the datasets are able to present the changing marine environment in aspects such as thermal conditions, ocean waves, typhoon gales and ecological environment.

To mobilize more global stakeholders to share marine governance outcomes to benefit more coastal regions, the "Global Initiative for the Ocean Decade Marine Public Welfare Action" that focuses on urban collaboration, science empowerment, ecological conservation, public participation and the blue economy was unveiled during the main forum.

Since its debut in 2024, the Global Ocean Development Forum has drawn broad participation from related international organizations, domestic and overseas public departments, universities and research institutions.

Organized by the People's Government of Shandong Province and the Ministry of Natural Resources, this year's forum served as a platform for countries at different development stages to share marine opportunities and jointly shoulder governance responsibilities.

In the future, Shandong, a province whose 2025 gross marine product reached 1.9 trillion yuan and ranked second nationwide, pledged to further leverage green shipping, marine new energy and other sectors to contribute together with all parties to a more resilient, sustainable new landscape for blue ocean development. 

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