Italy-China trade is set to keep growing and "much scope remains to improve the bilateral trade balance," Italy's finance minister Giovanni Tria told a conference in Milan on Wednesday.
The value of Italy's (annual) exports to China increased by a third from 9 billion euros in 2010 to 13 billion euros in 2018," Tria told the Italy-China financial forum.
The annual value of imports from China are stable at around 30 billion euros, meaning "much scope remains to improve the bilateral trade balance," Tria said.
Last year, the value of goods sent to China by Europe's principal exporters was around twice that of Italian exports to the Asian country, he noted.
The Belt and Road project - a massive programme to boost trade by building roads, ports and facilities across Asia and Africa to Europe - will allow Italy and China to "write a new chapter" in their relations, said Tria's Chinese counterpart Liu Kun told the forum.
Despite United States criticism and European Union misgivings, Italy this Spring became the first G7 country to sign up to President Xi Jinping's signature foreign initiative to re-create the ancient Silk Road.
The Italian government inked a preliminary accord on the Belt and Road initiative during a visit to Rome by Xi in March that saw a total of 29 deals signed worth a total 2.8 billion dollars.
The potential value of those business accords with the Chinese is as much as 20 billion euros, giving Italy's ailing economy a much-needed boost, Italy's industry and welfare minister Luigi Di Maio claims.
