The Italian Embassy in Beijing has established an executive Board for the strategic planning and coordination of all the initiatives promoting and providing economic and commercial support to Italian companies in China. The Board – which includes the Embassy, the Consuls General in Shanghai, Chongqing, Guangzhou and Hong Kong and the coordinator of the Italian Trade Agency (ICE) network in China – holds regular meetings via conference call. “A vast and complex context such as China must be addressed in an organised, coordinated and cohesive manner,” explained the Italian Ambassador in Beijing, Ettore Sequi, who created the Board. The initiative grew from this concept, offering itself as a tool to provide efficient, coherent and capillary assistance to businessmen and to increase the impact of promotional activities launched individually by the diplomatic network and by that of the Italian economic system in China.
Diplomacy is a key tool to promote Italy in an integrated promotional strategy
“The diplomatic-consular network, ICE, as well as the Chamber of Commerce, businesses and the academic world in China are different parts of a single whole,” said Ambassador Sequi. He continued: “I strongly believe in the unity of all subjects, institutional or otherwise, which are in the country and for this reason, since my arrival, I have focused on team spirit, strengthening relations with all national bodies operating in various capacities in China.” The Board reflects in concrete terms the economic and commercial vocation of Italian diplomacy that, in articulated and complex situations such as those in China, is a key tool for the integrated and systematic promotion of Italy. This ‘situation room’ is also an integral part of the “Road to 50”: the plan to deepen the strategic partnership between Italy and China, which will lead to the 50th anniversary of bilateral diplomatic relations in 2020. The year 2020 will also see the end of China’s recently approved 13th Five-Year Plan, which includes areas of particular interest to Italian companies.
