Educational, social policies become new Sino-Italian 'Silk Roads': experts

In an increasingly connected world, shared social and education policies can play a key role in fostering fruitful collaboration between China and Italy, Italian experts said commenting on Chinese Premier Li Keqiang's recent visit to Italy.

While Chinese and Italian companies were signing deals worth 8 billion euros (10 billion US dollars) in Rome earlier this week, meetings held in various parts of Italy highlighted new "Silk Roads" from education programs to cooperation on disability issues and environment protection.

On Saturday, Milan hosted the Meeting of Group of Friends on Disability Issues. For the first time, disability was included in the agenda of the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) that closed in Milan on Friday, thanks to China's active part in advocating cooperation in the field of disability among ASEM member countries.

Italy has a long tradition of welfare policies, and collaboration with China can help both countries as well as the international community make further steps, Giovanni Andornino, professor of international relations of East Asia at the University of Turin, told Xinhua.

Andornino, who is also editor of OrizzonteCina, an online monthly on contemporary China, noted there is still little knowledge in Italy about China. Thus now more than ever, he said, there is the need for "fresh cultural keys" which includes fulfilling the new necessities of the global society.

For example, more investment on China's "Italy watchers" by attracting into Italian universities those Chinese scholars who have a deep knowledge of the Italian culture would be crucial to uphold the bilateral relations on stronger basis, Andornino went on commenting.

The role of education was especially central at the Science, Technology and Innovation Week. The event featured five days of exhibitions and seminars organized in the southern creative city of Naples as well as the Italy-China Innovation Forum held on Thursday in business capital Milan.

Speaking at the forum in the presence of Chinese premier, Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi stressed the preciousness of sharing education policies. "Italy's biggest value is the quality of its students" whose avant-garde ideas help "breath the future," Renzi said.

"It is not easy to imagine a shared future between Italy and China without thinking to the magnificent past that the two countries have in common," but new bridges must be also created to boost dialogue in the present times, Renzi added.

In fact, education and social policies can also be the starting point to go beyond some cultural stereotypes that are often raised when speaking of Sino-Italian relations, Professor Axel Berkofsky, senior associate research fellow of Italian Institute for International Political Studies (ISPI), said.

In this regard, joint work on common social issues can be a valuable tool to enhance mutual understanding, he told Xinhua.

Tiziana Lippiello, a professor of Chinese language and literature at the Ca' Foscari University of Venice, said she thinks that ancient culture should remain the fundamentals for exchange, but also become the root for collaboration on issues that are crucial in today's connected world.

This approach has become the education model at the university based in the hometown of iconic traveller Marco Polo, which plans to introduce new joint programs to strengthen bilateral cooperation on a variety of issues, Lippiello explained to Xinhua.