Reception on Icelandic Tourism Day at Expo 2010.
Adress by Katrín Júlíusdóttir, Minister of Industry, Energy and Tourism at a reception at the Icelandic pavilion on the 17th of June 2010.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
It is a great honour to address you here on Iceland's Tourism Day at Expo 2010, it is also our national day, people are therefore celebrating all over Iceland today.
Being here in the Icelandic pavilion is rather like being at home in Iceland: it is a little bit cold, but very impressive and visually striking.
And with the warm welcome that we Icelanders have been given by our hosts, and the excellent service that Iceland has enjoyed from the organizers of Expo 2010, there is no better place to be today.
Many Icelanders are here today to celebrate this occasion with us: representatives of the tourist industry, leading figures in business and politics and tourists who have made their way to see Expo 2010.
To judge by numbers, you might think Iceland was a large country, but as we all know, it is not.
It is just that there is so much interest in China, and many people dream of coming here. Those who are here today have made this dream come true.
Ever since diplomatic relations were established in 1971, contact between China and Iceland has grown steadily, based on mutual friendship and respect.
The differences between our two countries make our cooperation interesting in many ways.
When the first settlers arrived in Iceland, eleven hundred years ago, China already had a culture that was thousands of years old.
In terms of the biography of nations, Iceland is one of the youngest, and China the oldest.
Perhaps the greatest contrast is found when we consider the size of our populations.
China is the home of one fifth of mankind; in Iceland, a small island far out at sea between two continents, there are only 320,000 people.
We are lucky, however, and luckier than many other nations, in that the Chinese have a beautiful-sounding name for our country, Bing Dao, which evokes mystery and attraction in their minds.
There are many things that unite our peoples and give them cause for joy. Both our countries have rich reserves of natural geothermal heat.
This is an area where Iceland has decades of experience in harnessing this energy for space heating, for health-related tourism, for swimming, for greenhouse cultivation and for electric power production.
We are indeed very proud to have been able to offer China, with its long civilization, the skills and experience necessary to use its geothermal resources in the service of tens of millions of its citizens and improve their living standards.
The relations between Iceland and China in this field have been very fruitful, through the UN Geothermal Training Programme in Iceland and further geothermal heating projects in China. Which are getting deeper just these days.
Our cultures and mentalities may seem dissimilar at first glance, yet the fact is that we in Iceland have long been familiar with some facets of Chinese wisdom.
Iceland's Nobel-Prize-winning writer, Halldór Laxness, referred to the Tao Te Ching more often than to any other book, and Lao Tse's view of life influenced many of Laxness's books, which are very popular in Iceland.
In addition, the Tao Te Ching has long been available in an Icelandic translation and is a favourite with many readers in Iceland, a country where books are held in high esteem.
I mentioned earlier that there is a great deal of interest in Iceland in China as a travel destination, and many people are keen to experience Chinese culture at first hand.
This is reflected in the rise in the numbers of people who travel from Iceland to China each year.
Air traffic agreements and tourist agreements have been concluded between China and Iceland which will lay the foundations of developments in the field of tourism between the two countries.
For our part, we in Iceland will have to make efforts to welcome Chinese visitors in a good Confucian spirit and respect their cultural values and lifestyle.
Cultural contacts between our countries have brought great benefit and pleasure to us both.
The Chinese-Icelandic Cultural Society (KÍM) has arranged visits by many outstanding Chinese artists to Iceland, and Icelandic artists, particularly musicians, have also visited China through its services and contacts.
In this context it should be mentioned that the first western rock band to tour China, in 1986, was an Icelandic group, STRAX, which is better known in Iceland under the name Stuðmenn, which you could translate to “Party-guys”.
Iceland is a volcanic country, with more than 30 active volcanic systems. Eruptions take place every 4-5 years, on average.
We are proud of our volcanoes even though they can be troublesome; we monitor them closely so we get some warnings when eruptions or earthquakes can be expected.
Our Civil Defence authority and other bodies control the situation closely and take measures to maintain safety.
Iceland's infrastructure is sufficiently developed to cope with the likely consequences of eruptions, and life continues as normal, though of course the eruptions have a local effect, but in most cases this has been in isolated areas, far from centres of population.
The eruption in the Eyjafjalla Glacier earlier this year had a serious effect on air traffic in Europe, even though only a small part of Iceland itself was directly affected.
No eruption in Iceland over the previous 60 years had produced so much fine, light ash, and the resulting situation showed that international aviation authorities need to be better prepared than they were for events of this type.
Iceland itself was never cut off as a result of the eruption, as we have four international airports in various parts of the country, which ensures that the contact by air is always open.
A small nation can do various things that are harder for larger ones.
On 3 June this year all Icelanders joined together in sending messages to our friends, relatives and customers all over the world via the Internet, which is in use in almost all Icelandic homes.
People sent a special music video with a greeting from Iceland and an invitation to come and visit our country this summer.
This was received by many millions of people from all over the world, and lots of people have also followed live web broadcasts from tourist spots where they can see what things are like in Iceland, as we can do here and now.
I should like to urge you all to have a look at the website http://www.inspiredbyiceland.com/ there you can see live webcams from different locations. You can also find information about what different tourism service companies have to offer.
The recent agreements between Icelandic and China, which were signed during the visit of He Guoqiang, Member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party, illustrate how contact between our countries is continuing to develop in a very positive direction in the spirit of mutual trust.
Iceland's participation in Expo 2010 has also been very gratifying.
The Icelandic pavilion gives an extraordinarily genuine and impressive picture of Iceland, and it has been very well attended.
I should like to thank everyone involved for their superb work on designing and building the pavilion, and providing all the associated information and services, and to congratulate them on their excellent achievement.
With me here today are some of the leading companies in Icelandic tourism. I would like to introduce them to you (minister introduces their representatives present at the reception).
I should like to thank our Chinese hosts for their hospitality and their goodwill towards us.