Shandong Peninsula Blue Economic Zone signed a package of contracts worth 38.6 billion U.S. dollars in Beijing Friday.

Following are facts and figures on the ocean economic zone, the first of its kind in China.

The zone covers all the offshore waters of east China's Shandong Province, which have an area of 159,500 square kilometers.

It also covers 64,000 square kilometers of land that includes six cities -- Qingdao, Dongying, Yantai, Weifang, Weihai and Rizhao -- and two coastal counties administered by Binzhou.

Shandong Peninsula Blue Economic Zone is one of the three regional ocean economic zones approved by the State Council, or the Cabinet, in April last year as pilot zones for the development of China's marine economy.

The other two are in eastern Zhejiang Province and southern Guangdong Province.

Shandong's ocean economic zone in 2009 had a population of 33 million and a total economic output of 1.65 trillion yuan (250 billion dollars).

Last year, marine industry output in Shandong totaled 604 billion yuan (92 billion dollars), accounting for 18.9 percent of the national total of 3.2 trillion yuan (484 billion dollars).

The Shandong provincial government will this year allocate 2 billion yuan (303 million dollars) to support the construction of the zone.

China is abundant with marine resources with its 3 million square kilometers of offshore waters and 32,000 kilometers of coast.

China has a proven marine oil reserve of 24.6 billion tones and natural gas reserve of 1.6 billion cubic meters.

China's marine economy accounts for almost 10 percent of the country's gross domestic product (GDP), supporting more than 32 million jobs.

Guangdong, Shandong and Shanghai are China's top three regions in marine economy, accounting for more than half the national total output.

China's marine economy is mainly centered on traditional industries, such as fishing, transport and tourism, which together account for two thirds of the total marine output.

Emerging industries, including marine-related biomedicine, power, chemicals and seawater utilization, account for 5 percent of marine output.

The State Council approved on Jan. 4 the development plan for the economic zone as part of the national development strategy.