Italy aims to bolster its ties with Asian countries, the Italian
Foreign Ministry said yesterday ahead of Premier Romano Prodi's
trip to China.
Italian Foreign Undersecretary Ganni Vernetti told reporters
that "Italy wants to invest a lot in its relations with Asian
countries."
"Asia is one of Italy's foreign policy priorities," Vernetti
added.
The undersecretary noted that Prodi's visit to China this week
would be followed by a trip to India in February and Japan in
April.
Meanwhile, two major Indian delegations are due to visit Italy
in November.
At a press conference last week about his six-day China trip,
Prodi said that he wanted Italy to become "the door to the
East."
He stressed the need to build up Italy's economic relations with
China, underscoring that the Asian giant represented a great
opportunity for Italian businesses.
Prodi will begin his China visit tomorrow accompanied by four
ministers, one junior minister and three undersecretaries plus
representatives of 12 of Italy's 20 regions and top members of the
powerful industrial employers' federation Confindustria, the
Italian Foreign Trade Institute (ICE) and the Italian Banking
Association (ABI).
Some 500 Italian businessmen will be included in the
Confindustria, ICE and ABI delegations, making the overall group
the largest ever Italian one to visit China.
Prodi will visit four cities that are key to China's economic
engine: Nanjing, Guangzhou, Shanghai and Tianjin.
His trip will end in Beijing, where the center-left leader will
hold talks with Chinese President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen
Jiabao.
The development of the northeast port city of Tianjin near
Beijing is expected to figure high on the agenda in the talks
between Prodi and Wen.
A total of 1,428 Italian companies are currently present in
China and more than 80 percent of them are large-sized ones.
Meanwhile, Italian exports to China jumped 18.6 percent in the
past 12 months with textiles and machinery leading the upward
trend.
One of Prodi's most important stops will be in Guangzhou, where
he and Foreign Trade Minister Emma Bonino will open the city's
international fair of small to medium-sized firms.
(Xinhua News Agency September 12, 2006)
