adminMILAN. — Seven hundred years after Marco Polo showed how it was done, Italy is once again knocking on China’s door looking to do business. This time around the quest is for capital investment and entrepreneurial inspiration rather than the silks and spices brought home by Venice’s celebrated merchant explorer.
But the objective and the context have much in common: mutual prosperity at a time of global economic flux.
Rather than Italians heading for China, as in Polo’s day, today’s pioneers are Chinese entrepreneurs making their way to Italy looking to do deals in a country in search of a holistic remedy for its economic ailments.
When Milan succeeds Shanghai as host of the Universal Exposition next year, an estimated seven million Chinese are expected to visit the city. Organisers expect half of them will be business figures looking for an opportunity in a country where company bankruptcies are running at 16,000 per year.
Already this year, Chinese companies have splashed out several billion euros (dollars) acquiring stakes in or control of Italian companies ranging from a venerable old fashion house to some of its biggest energy companies as well as to the producer of a well-known olive oil brands.
That has vindicated Prime Minister Matteo Renzi’s decision to send an “open-for-business” signal to Beijing after he came to power in February. “Renzi had the intelligence to make China the first country that he visited, that was the signal they were waiting for,” said Antonio Cianci, the organiser of a series of recent business-to-business gatherings including the China Italy Financial Summit and the China Italy Technology Forum.
“The Chinese were knocking on our door, but we were incapable of opening it,” he said.
“We were too busy navel-gazing.”
Renzi, 39, is attempting to implement reforms designed to make the country more attractive to investors.
“We have to become more open,” he said.
In Rome last week he declared: “We must bring more China to Italy and take more Italy to China.” At the heart of Renzi’s reform drive lies a shake up of the labour market, which should make it easier for employers to hire and fire, and an overhaul of the snail-paced legal system to ensure contracts can be enforced within a reasonable timeframe. Renzi’s visit to Beijing in June was reciprocated this month by his Chinese counterpart Li Keqiang, who signed some eight billion euros ($10 billion) worth of trade and financial cooperation agreements in Rome.
China’s central bank has this year acquired stakes in Fiat, Telecom Italia, insurer Generali, energy giant Eni and utility Enel.
Shortly after Renzi’s Beijing visit, Italy sold a stake in energy grids holding company CDP Reti to State Grid Corp of China for 2,1 billion euros.
These deals have made few waves and even the transfer of more emblematic assets to Chinese owners have not unleashed much negative reaction among a recession-weary public. — Sapa-AFP
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