OREANDA-NEWS. December 17, 2014. New trade and investment agreements between Ireland and China have been signed as part of Irish President Michael Higgins' 9-day visit to China.

The deals themselves are worth over 15-million dollars.

One of them is connected to Chinese oil drilling.

The company behind the Shengli Oilfield, along with the Shandong Academy of Sciences and Irish firm MicroGen Biotech are teaming up to try to make oil drilling in the Shengli Field more environmentally-friendly.

Mr. Zhang is with the Jindao Industrial Corporation, the company which controls the Shengli Oil Field.

"Ireland has the world's leading bio-remediation technology. We, the Shengli Oilfield, will have more market potential through our cooperation with the Irish company. We will introduce its oil-eating bacteria for cultivation and reproduction in an attempt to better restore the environment."

The other agreement inked is a student exchange deal signed among Ireland's University of Limerick and a pair of Chinese universities: Tianjin Foreign Studies University and Hebei University of Technology.

A number of other deals in areas such as people-people exchanges, science and technology are expected to be signed as part of Michael Higgins time here in China.

Two-way trade between Ireland and China reached 8-billion euros last year, making China Ireland's leading trade partner in Asia.

One of the areas Ireland has focused on is food and agriculture.

The country's exports of food products to China grew by over 40-percent last year.

Dairy, pork, seafood and beverages are at the heart of this growth.

Despite China's recent Free Trade Agreement with Australia, a major dairy exporter, Irish officials remain optimistic about its dairy exports to China.

Julie Sinnamon is the Chief executive of Enterprise Ireland, an Irish government agency specializing in trade and technology.

"Chinese government earlier this year went around every country to inspect their infant formula plants. Ireland was the only country that every plant passes the test. So the quality standard of Ireland is very green, nature and grass-based production system, and we have a very strong competitive advantage. So we have competition, but we don't mind. "

Aside from food, another area of focus for Irish President Michael Higgins on his China trip is technology.

"On Wednesday, I will be visiting the Research and Development Centre of Huawei – which is the largest Chinese employer in Ireland; and on Friday, I am looking forward to meeting Jack Ma of Alibaba. So this morning I just want to say that all these sectors have great opportunities such as agriculture and food, and there are others."

China and Ireland this year created a new Technology Fund worth 100-million US dollars.