Visiting Icelandic President Olafur Ragnar Grimsson attended a signing ceremony in Qingdao Saturday for an agreement between Chinese and Icelandic companies on construction of a 150,000-ton storing house for frozen seafood at the city of Qingdao in East China's Shandong Province.

President Grimsson arrived at this coastal city later Friday with 200 Icelandic government officials, business people and journalists, including administrative personnel of the two Icelandic signing companies-- Atlantis Group, the seafood company and Samskip, the logistics company.

Apart from building large storing facilities, their partnership agreement with the local Yijia International Trading Group involved co-operation in fields like fish farming, seafood processing and packaging, and distribution.

"We will start with building a smaller 50,000-ton storage in Qingdao in the next two years," said Oli Valur Steindorsson, chief executive officer of Atlantics Group.

According to the agreement, Samskip will be responsible for the storage operation and shipping service for fishing trade.

Grimsson cited it as a "historic agreement" as the storage facilities will be the first of its kind they are going to build in the city.

"This is really going to work," the Icelandic president said, calling the agreement a concrete evidence of how co-operation developed between the two sides.

Grimsson and his delegation also visited a local fish processing factory shortly after his arrival. He vowed to boost the fishing business between Iceland and China's coastal regions as Qingdao city.

According to relevant government figures, the seafood output of Shandong Province in 2004 topped 7.18 million tons. The value of its fishing industry in the year reached 113.64 billion yuan (US$13.73 billion), 13.3 percent up from 2003. And about 80 percent of Icelandic investment in China concerning fishing industry was in Shandong Province.

"Fish unites us," said Eidur Gudnason, Icelandic Ambassador to China, adding that the industry "is vital to Qingdao and is vitally important to Iceland."

President Grimsson left Qingdao Saturday afternoon and he is due to wind up his China trip on Sunday.

Source: Xinhua