Visiting Icelandic President Olafur Ragnar Grimsson said in Beijing Wednesday at a China-Iceland business seminar that Iceland will make great efforts to promote its economic cooperation and trade with China.  

"I promise you that in the month and years to come I will regularly inquire about the success of the Chinese-Icelandic joint efforts and keenly follow with great interest and the progress of an ever-growing cooperation in trade and especially in the wider global market," Grimsson said.

He told the Chinese and Icelandic entrepreneurs attending the seminar that the key potential of bilateral cooperation lies in "globally relevant strategic Chinese-Icelandic partnership." Icelandic companies would then be able to provide China with the benefit of growing worldwide trade.

Grimsson said he hoped that Iceland and China could forge close cooperation in fields such as seafood production, airline business, tourism and especially hydro and geothermal energy.

"We have already made our experience in the field available to China and I hope that in the near future we will see more joint China-Iceland energy projects," Grimsson said.

In addition, the Icelandic companies, which are active in areas as diverse as prosthetics and pharmaceuticals, banking and finance, telecommunications and software, retail and fashion, transport and shipping, also desire to develop and strengthen the cooperation with their Chinese partners.

"It is important to understand that these Icelandic companies can become important vehicles for Chinese commercial and business advance in the global market, and not just in Chinese-Icelandic trade," the Icelandic president said.

Before delivering the speech, Grimsson attended the signing ceremony of a geothermal cooperation agreement between Iceland and Xianyang, a city of northwestern Shaanxi Province.

(Xinhua News Agency May 19, 2005)