Blue Synergy for a Shared Future:

This year's Congress provides a dynamic platform for PEMSEA partners and collaborators to showcase achievements, share initiatives and best practices, and develop innovative partnership initiatives. We will focus on critical topics including climate change, marine pollution, ocean governance, fisheries management, blue carbon, and cutting-edge solutions for ocean conservation.

Our emphasis on integrated coast and river basin management demonstrates the region's unwavering commitment to building sustainable and resilient communities while contributing to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and other international and regional commitments.

Active and inclusive Pparticipation is crucial in accelerating synergistic actions for a sustainable blue future. Together, we can address challenges, share knowledge, and chart a course for effective ocean governance. This Congress marks an important milestone in our collective efforts to enhance ensure the health and productivity of our shared seas.

We look forward to valuable contributions from all participants. Join us in Xiamen in China to engage in meaningful discussions, forge powerful partnerships, and shape the future of our oceans and coasts!

The theme of this year’s Congress is ‘Blue Synergy for a Shared Future: One Sustainable and Resilient Ocean’. We hope that this grand gathering would further consolidate consensus, pool resources, demonstrate our determination and confidence in continuously promoting the implementation of SDS-SEA, and contribute more wisdom and solutions to the marine sustainable development in the EAS region.

For more than three decades, China has been closely cooperating with PEMSEA through actively exploring and promoting successful models and best practices in marine and coastal management, establishing the China-PEMSEA Sustainable Coastal Management Cooperation Center jointly, and making the concept of Integrated Coastal Management embraced by the people so as to ensure the effective management on seas and coasts through scientific decision-making process by the authorities. Xiamen, with its implementation of PEMSEA projects, has explored the methodology of ‘prioritized legislation, centralized coordination, scientific support, comprehensive law-enforcement, guaranteed funding and public participation’ and achieved remarkable accomplishments in balancing ecological environmental protection and sustainable economic development. These valuable practices are widely recognized and applied by countries in the EAS region.

International cooperation is an effective way to realize sustainable development in marine sector. People in the EAS region are living in a big and harmonious community, where our amicable exchanges could be traced back to over one thousand years ago. The initiative of jointly building 21st Century Maritime Silk Road proposed by China is not only an inheritance of long-standing history and glorious civilization, but also a robust motivation to modern scientific, technological and cultural interflow and mutual learning as well as economic and trade cooperation. Today, with the establishment of international and regional mechanisms such as PEMSEA, countries in the EAS region are more inter-connected and integrative than ever before. We hope to join hands to make concerted efforts in addressing any risks and challenges confronting us, vigorously developing blue partnerships, continuously promoting the building of a maritime community with a shared future, thereby contribute to the United Nations 2030 Sustainable Development Goals, and create a model featured with high-quality marine and coastal development in the EAS region for the world.

Located on the southeast coast of China, Xiamen is a premier port city and a scenic tourist destination, that has long been reputed as a “Garden by the Sea”. It is “a robust city known for innovation and entrepreneurship”, “a beautiful garden city with sound ecological conservation” and “a modern and cosmopolitan city”, as hailed by President Xi Jinping at the BRICS Xiamen Summit 2017. The City boasts a wealth of policy incentives given its multiple designations as a Special Economic Zone, a Pilot Free Trade Zone and the BRICS Partnership on New Industrial Revolution Innovation Center.

Moreover, Xiamen is a major international shipping center and a top-tier comprehensive international transport hub in China. It is the 13th busiest container seaport in the world. With economic and trade connections with over 200 countries and regions, the City is a national front-runner in composite competitiveness, innovation capacity and business environment. And the Xiamen-hosted WOW has grown into a prestigious maritime event with global reach and influence.

Covering 333 square kilometers of sea and 265 kilometers of coastline, Xiamen has been protecting and restoring its marine ecosystems for years with dedicated efforts and strategic resolve. Therefore, it has become the first demonstration zone of integrated coastal management in China and even in the East Asian Seas region. It has charted a path of eco-civilization whereby high-quality economic growth is achieved together with notable improvements in environmental protection and whereby humanity coexists in perfect harmony with the ocean. As such, it has presented to the world a "Xiamen Model” for marine environmental protection and sustainable development.

The theme of the EAS Congress 2024 — “Blue Synergy for a Shared Future: One Sustainable and Resilient Ocean”, resonates well with Xiamen’s efforts and experience in integrated coastal management. To achieve sustainable development in the East Asian Seas region, Xiamen, a proponent of fostering a global community of shared future, is ready to work with all stakeholders to build the Blue Partnership and promote the responsible use, proper care and protection of the ocean. We genuinely hope that you will leverage the Congress as a platform to enhance exchanges, build consensuses and seek mutually beneficial cooperation. We welcome you to learn more about our city and visit Xiamen soon.

May I wish the EAS Congress 2024 every success. Thank you and we look forward to seeing you in Xiamen.