Balanced trade relations, more Chinese investments - Mattarella in Beijing

(ANSA) - ROME, NOV 9 - Italian President Sergio Mattarella on Saturday said trade relations between China and Italy had doubled between 2016 and 2022 but were still below their potential and called for more balanced trade relations and an increase in Chinese investments in Italy during a meeting with Premier Li Qiang in Beijing.
    "We have an exchange that over six years, between 2016 and 2022, has doubled from 38 billion to 74 billion" euros in 2022, stressed Mattarella.
    "With two observations: the first is that it is still below potential and thus the will to increase the commercial flow; the other is the need to rebalance the development of import-export trade relations".
    Mattarella also noted that "we have very much at heart" Chinese investments in Italy while encouraging Italian investments in China which have quickly grown to reach 15 billion euros in 2023.
    The president expressed the hope that Chinese investments can also "grow quickly and they are also below their possible potential".
    Meanwhile during a meeting in Beijing with the president of the National People's Congress (NPC) Zhao Leji, Mattarella spoke about talks held on Friday with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, saying they had registered "full harmony and a convergence of evaluations".
    "There is a growth in the will of reciprocal collaboration.
    "An ancient relationship that finds today a full and cooperative current expression on the political level and on an international vision that concerns the will for peace, multilateralism, opening up in economic relations.
    "This is why this visit is very important for me", said the head of State, recalling that Premier Giorgia Meloni visited in July and that "such a close presence of our country's leading institutions is totally unusual", showing "how important it is for us to increasingly develop relations with China". (ANSA).