Exclusive: Italian PM's visit expected to bring new opportunities for bilateral cooperation: chamber

The ongoing official visit of Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni to China raised high expectations among the business community for its potential boost to bilateral economic and trade ties, in which both sides are highly complementary.

The visit, which takes place from Saturday to Wednesday, is highly anticipated by both Italian and Chinese enterprises with investments in mind, Fan Xianwei, secretary-general of the Chinese Chamber of Commerce in Italy (CCCIT), told the Global Times in an interview via email over the weekend, noting that "the visit is expected to bring new opportunities for bilateral cooperation, reflecting the shared aspirations of both nations."

"Chinese enterprises hope that with the exceptional political wisdom of leaders from both sides, Meloni's visit will foster deeper development of the comprehensive strategic partnership between China and Italy, reject ideological biases, advocate economic globalization, and create a favorable and equitable business and investment environment," Fan said.

The visit came as China had just concluded its third plenary session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, during which important policies were unveiled, reflecting China's resolve to deepen reform and opening-up, a message that has been welcomed by the international business community.

Meloni's visit to China aims to further build up mutual trust while expanding cooperation despite Italy's previous withdrawal from the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative, Zhao Junjie, a research fellow at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences' Institute of European Studies, told the Global Times.

"Meloni is expected to secure more cooperation in major projects with great potential, while driving economic development and bringing back vitality to some of its previously thriving sectors and enterprises, such as the manufacturing industry, and new energy by cooperating with Chinese enterprises," said Zhao.

China and Italy continue to deepen practical cooperation and achieve mutual benefits and win-win results. China is Italy's largest trading partner in Asia, with bilateral trade exceeding $70 billion for three consecutive years, Chinese Ambassador to Italy Jia Guide said in an article published by the People's Daily on Sunday.

China and Italy are highly complementary in the fields of agricultural and food products, biomedicine and e-commerce, Jia said.

The Italian prime minister's visit also comes as the EU is imposing additional tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles, a move that has received wide opposition within the bloc and posed concerns about a possible trade war between the two major trading partners.

Looking at EU-China relations, Fan agreed that despite overall development in recent years, new issues and challenges have emerged. In particular, the European Commission's recent introduction of trade protectionist policies and regulations has added complexity and uncertainty to China-EU relations.

"Meloni is a pragmatic politician, and both Italy and China can accommodate and respect each other's differences from a broad historical and civilizational perspective... Her visit to China is expected to bring new opportunities for bilateral cooperation, reflecting the shared aspirations of both nations," Fan further noted.