More than 150 countries, regions and international groups have already signed on to China’s Belt and Road Initiative. Enter Italy, whose bilateral trade with China reached a record of $54.2 billion last year. According to Italy’s Undersecretary for Economic Development, the country hopes to increase exports to China by another $8 billion, and benefit from numerous infrastructure improvements. It would be a sorely needed shot in the arm to an ailing economy.
CGTN’s Michal Bardavid reports from Rome.
Follow Michal Bardavid on Twitter @michal_bardavid
Joining the Heat to discuss this:
- Jue Wang, an assistant professor with the Leiden University Institute for Area Studies.
- Nicolas Véron, a senior fellow at Bruegel, a Brussels-based policy center and the Peterson Institute for International Economics.
- Zhao Hai, a Research Fellow with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing.
- Nicola Casarini, the head of Asia research at the Istituto Affari Internazionali, an Italian think tank.
More:
Chinese President #XiJinping and Italian President Sergio Mattarella meet the press #XiVisit https://t.co/mDIOC28kFj pic.twitter.com/1BF5Dmnot1
— CGTN (@CGTNOfficial) March 22, 2019
Chinese President Xi Jinping's state visit to Italy is very important and will boost the two countries' commercial relationship, a senior Italian official said https://t.co/k7NQJiDzTE #Xiplomacy pic.twitter.com/Q5XX9xYhXM
— China Xinhua News (@XHNews) March 22, 2019