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".
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