Visiting Icelandic President Olafur Ragnar Grimsson Friday promised to boost the cooperation of the fishing industry between Iceland and China during his visit to the coastal city of Qingdao in East China's Shandong Province.

After his arrival here earlier this afternoon, Grimsson visited a local seafood processing factory which has been doing business with Blue Ice Group, the largest Icelandic seafood company, since 2000.

Grimsson hailed the success of such cooperation between Chinese and Icelandic companies, vowing to further efforts to boost fishing trade between the two sides.

"We have many leading fishery businessmen in the delegation with me today, and they are determined to bring great success to bilateral fishery cooperation between China and Iceland," Grimsson said in a welcome dinner after meeting top officials of Shandong Province.

Grimsson said the fishing industry was one of the priority fields of China-Iceland cooperation as was agreed upon by himself and Chinese president Hu Jintao. The cooperation could start from Qingdao where there is a huge room for fishery development, he noted.

According to government figures, the seafood output of Shandong in 2004 topped 7.18 million tons, 120,000 tons more than the year before. The value of fishing industry reached 113.64 billion yuan (about 13.74 billion US dollars), 13.3 percent up from 2003.

Grimsson said he was born in a small fishing village in northern Iceland and the ocean and the mountains here at Qingdao were much similar to the scenes at his birthplace. "Though we are thousands of miles apart, there are many similarities that will affect our hearts," he said.

Grimsson arrived in Beijing Monday for his first China tour after taking office as president in August 1996. He then flew to Shanghai, China's economic hub, for a two-day visit before coming to Qingdao.

Source: Xinhua