Officials with the Pingtan Maritime Safety Administration give a certificate of ship ownership to representatives of a local ship company, March 3. [Photo/ptnet.cn]

Pingtan Maritime Safety Administration granted its first certificate of ship ownership to a local shipping company on March 3, marking the launch of its ship ownership registration work, local media reported.

Experts believe that having the power to grant such certificates will greatly promote the development of the Pingtan port.

According to local officials, the port plays a significant role in the county's opening up, because sea transport is of great importance to Pingtan's trade business.

Before Pingtan got its own maritime safety administration in last November, local ship firms had to go to the city of Fuzhou to deal with registration procedures, which is not convenient and quite time-consuming.

Lin Xianghong, general manager of Pingtan Jintai Shipping Co said that she is pleased about the news that ships can be registered in the county.

Officials with the maritime safety administration claimed that they will work on simpler ship ownership registration procedures and related preferential policies to attract more ships to get registered in Pingtan.

They hope more and more ships that bear the characters of Pingtan can be seen at ports all over the world, add the officials.