Chinese people visit the Roman Colosseum in Italy during May Day vacation in 2023. (PHOTO: XINHUA)

By GONG Qian

As two major ancient civilizations, China and Italy have a long history of cultural and economic exchanges, which can date back to the medieval Venetian explorer Marco Polo who traversed the ancient Silk Road trade route. Thousands of years later, the two countries built a stronger bond as Italy became the first G7 country to join the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in 2019, which marked a significant milestone of the bilateral relations.

This is a symbol of win-win cooperation among major economies. At that time, Italy had suffered through three recessions within a decade, and the BRI offered an opportunity for Italy to help its lagging economy by inviting Chinese investment and expanding Italian exports' access into China's huge market, according to the Council on Foreign Relations, a U.S. think tank and publisher founded in 1921. Meanwhile, for China, Italian ports offer favorable trade terms and faster access to EU markets.

The BRI does provide a new platform for practical cooperation between China and Italy and has brought tangible economic, trade and business outcomes.

China is Italy's largest trade partner in Asia while Italy is China's fourth largest trade partner in the EU. Over the past five years, bilateral trade had increased by 42 percent, reaching nearly 80 USD billion in 2022, according to Mao Ning, the spokesperson of Foreign Ministry of China. Citing data from the Italian government, the spokesperson said that in the first five months of this year, Italy's exports to China surged 58 percent year-on-year.

In an interview with Global Times, Jia Guide, Chinese Ambassador to Italy, introduced recent cooperation between the two countries. For example, the first large-scale cruise ship jointly built by China and Italy has completed its successful trial voyage. The joint construction project for six cruise ships in total is worth nearly five USD billion. Meanwhile, STMicroelectronics, an Italy-France joint venture, has signed an agreement with China's Sanan Optoelectronics to form a 3.2 USD billion semiconductor joint venture in June.

With the deepening relation between the two countries, Italy was invited to become the honored guest country at the 2nd China International Import Expo in 2019 and China International Consumer Products Expo in 2023, respectively, which means more Italian products can be found in the Chinese market, said Jia.

Italy's exports to China mainly include machinery and equipment, automobiles, biomedicine, and high-end clothing. More Italian high-quality products entering the Chinese market will mean more choices for Chinese consumers, said Jia.

Now, as both China and Italy are taking actions to promote low-carbon and digital transformation, enterprises from the two countries can fully seize the opportunity to strengthen cooperation in many fields, including digital finance, Internet of Things, new energy, modern agriculture and biomedicine.

Next year will mark the 10th anniversary of the establishment of the comprehensive strategic partnership between China and Italy. It is expected to see relations between the two countries embracing a brighter future with more pragmatic cooperation in the pipeline.