Trade cooperation is vital to the bilateral relationship between China and Italy. Steadily growing exchanges in trade, business partnership and foreign investment lay a solid foundation for the bilateral relationship of the two sides. Italy has long been aware that China is not only the best trade partner but also an important driving force of the world economy. With that being said, the 40th anniversary of China's reform and opening-up is of great significance, which was celebrated last November on the occassion of Shanghai Import Expo. Back then, Italy sent a delegation of governemnt institutions and about 180 enterprises headed by Vice Prime Minister Di Maio to show its support to the Expo.

After the 19th National People's Congress of the CPC, administrative adjustments and economic reforms made by the government highlight that China, no longer a factory of the world, aims to create a development model based on consumption, inclusive growth and quality improvement and will press ahead with more and more attention paid to people's needs.
While China is making more efforts to enhance the quality of its development and increase its domestic consumption, Italy can provide assistance in many ways. In particular, it can share its experience in solving the problems arising from energy resources, environmental protection, sustainable urbanization, machinery, food security, health care and pension industry. Besides, Italy excels also in making high end furnitures, textiles and clothes and innovative designs, which are becoming the preferred choice of more and more middle class in China.

Many countries have expressed their wish to become China's preferred partners including Italy. Currently, China's GDP accounts for over 18 % of the world's total. By 2022, the number of moderately wealthy people in China will reach 3.5 billion. As such, the risk to compete in such a big market is very high. Other countries which can rival with us are investing in the economy, trade, culture, science, and above all Human Resources in the People's Republic of China. So, Italy can not be left out.

We are convinced that Chinese market can offer enormous opportunities to our manufacturing parts of which are yet to be explored. China's social digitization, abosolute leadership in e-commerce, and payment through smart phones testify to the defining trend towards creative and more modern technology. In the meantime, China's middle class is increasing in number with strong purchasing power. With more and more international outlook and greater open-mindedness to new ways of spending, they are a large group of potential customers of our high-quality and luxury product industry. That said, it is essential for Italy while giving our government's support to cooperate with China in a systematic way.

Constant information connectivity is necessary to support our domestic companies. It is critical for us to demonstrate an Italian image with our innovative minds and advanced manufacturing technology to bettter meet the demand of Chinese market. It is not widely known that we have cooperated with China in aerospace. For instance, Intaly worked with China in mapping the moon and launching exploring satellites which are commonly designed by the two sides.
Chinese market is highly competitive with constant changes, which requires our institutions and enterprises full of vitality and creativity. Otherwise, we would lose the great opportunity to promote cooperation with mutual respect while following the rules of free competition, transparency, intergrity and protection of intellectual property right and to further enhance our bilateral relationship. In recent years, we have been committed to make use of China's resources with more efficiency and effectiveness. We have advanced the common development of government bodies and enterprises in the spirit of coordination, mutual benefits and understanding.

In that spirit, we held the first Italian Entrepreneurial Forum in Yan Qi Lake in Huai Rou District of Beijing in 2015. The forum is an informal gathering co-organized by Intalian Foreign Trade Committee, China-Italy Chamber of Commerce, business leaders and the Business Forum Italy-China. It focuses on the discussions on the political and economic prospect of our bilateral cooperation and the challenges brought by China's market and the ways to turn these challenges into opportunities for development. In every forum, we make plans together with our companies and carry them out jointly with a binding agreement so as to maximize the benefits for Italy and Italian manufacturing system.

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