Glitnir, a leading Nordic bank headquartered in Iceland, opened its first Asian representative office in Shanghai Tuesday.

 

The bank, which specializes in providing capital to businesses involved in fisheries, sustainable energy and offshore supplies, plans to offer banking service to clients in China and Asia from the Shanghai office.

 

It has financed the first-phase construction of a new geothermal district heating system in Xianyang, northwest China's Shaanxi Province, the official geothermal city in China

 

Bjarni Armannsson, chief executive officer of the bank, said at the opening ceremony that the bank will work on tapping China's geothermal resources for heating to replace the burning of nonrenewable energies such as coal and petroleum.

 

About 99 percent of Iceland's power comes from sustainable energy resources such as hydroelectric or geothermal power.

 

Zhu Jiang, chief representative of the Shanghai office, said that China has rich geothermal resources in Yunnan and Tibet that could be used to generate power.

 

The Xianyang project is expected to offer heating to 500,000 people in three to five years, said Zhu.

 

(Xinhua News Agency December 6, 2006)