'Made in Italy' push going eastward

A lion dance is organized to welcome Chinese visitors to an airport in Milan. The number of Chinese visitors to Italy exceeded 500,000 in 2013, an increase of 35 percent from the figure in 2010. Most of the visitors planned to do luxury shopping there. Xu Nizhi / Xinhua

Nowadays, few Italian businessmen would deny that China is strategic for the growth of Italy, especially those who are doing business in China.

"China was our key to success," Massimo Roj, the head of an Italian company specializing in integrated design, said on Wednesday, more than 10 years after he first set foot in Beijing.

"In 2002, I was on a mission to China and found a world that I did not expect, one that was very different from the stereotypical country I had in my mind," Roj told an audience of entrepreneurs who met in Milan, the economic capital of Italy, to share their success stories in setting up businesses in China.

Roj's company, Progetto CMR, has three branches in China - in Beijing, Shanghai and Tianjin - as well as having several projects in China that have received international awards.

DB World Architecture 100 has put the company among the top architectural studios worldwide.

The Italian firm's objective of creating sustainable architecture makes China especially attractive for Italian businesses.

Design, fashion, environmental technology, IT and the pharmaceutical industry are among sectors allowing Italian companies to export to China the "intangible" quality of "Made in Italy," General Manager of Intesa Sanpaolo Bank Gaetano Micciche noted.

The research center of Intesa Sanpaolo Bank, which has been present in China for some 30 years, reported that China's demand is growing for sustainable development and high value-added products.

"That is why China is strategic for the growth of Italy," Micciche stressed.

"Growing domestic consumption and the middle class make the world's second-largest economy one with enormous potential," he said.

Italy and China recently agreed to enhance cooperation in such fields as green development, agriculture and food security, sustainable urbanization and health services. Those sectors represent development priorities for China and also are strategic areas in which Italian companies have comparative advantages and can provide innovative technologies and know-how.

Grandi Salumifici Italiani Group, a leader in the Italian food industry and processed meats market, has increased its turnover tenfold to more than 600 million euros ($811 million) since entering China's market in 1994.

"We considered China a concrete growth opportunity, and we have done well," said Helmuth Senfter, president of the group's company in China, which today produces an "Italian style for the niche market".

Echoing his words, Pasquale Forte, president of Eldor, an Italian leader in the automotive business, told the audience he was very satisfied with the company's choice to invest in China.

"Of course, there have been obstacles due to cultural differences between the two countries, which we have tried to overcome with more effective communication," he said.

But Forte was enthusiastic as he noted that Chinese employees at the group's new plant in Dalian, which started production a few months ago, are "highly qualified". Eventually, the plant will have more than 500 employees on eight production lines.

According to the Italy China Foundation, the organizer of Wednesday's conference, Italian investments in China last year amounted to $316 million, up nearly 29 percent compared with 2012.

Also last year, Italian exports to China posted 8.1 percent growth compared with 2012, the foundation said, citing data from the China General Administration of Customs.

"A common strategic vision for China characterizes the Italian companies that can tell success stories today," Italy China Foundation President Cesare Romiti said at the conference.

"We will continue to work to have many more positive examples," he added.