Chinese Lantern Festival, strengthened ties in Monza

BY MARIELLA RADAELLI

LuminosityItalia.com

As communities, business leaders and chambers of commerce continue to bridge the economies and cultures of China and Italy, one entrepreneur has shown what individual initiative can do.

The festival is underway at Viale Sicilia through

the holiday season. Photo: Fabrizio Radaelli

Wen Long from Sichuan province has brought the first edition of the Chinese Lantern Festival to Monza. It opened on Oct. 1 and will continue to shine at Viale Sicilia throughout the holiday season.

Wen said he fell in love with Italian culture when he was a kid.

“After watching the movie Vacanze Romane, I realized that there was something magical about your culture,” he said at the Dec.18 Italy-China Exchange and Cooperation meeting in Monza, held at the offices of Confartigianato, Viale Stucchi 64.

“In addition, historic characters such as Marco Polo and the Jesuit Matteo Ricci permeated my childhood,” he said.

Local business leaders noted that excellent Monza and Brianza firms can still find good opportunities in China, especially in Wen’s home province of Sichuan.

The meeting that welcomed Wen was organized to provide more opportunities for Monza and Brianza firms by offering a better understanding of Sichuan while promoting the excellence of Italian goods and services and laying the foundation for further exchanges and cooperation.

Government officials in attendance included Monza Mayor Roberto Scanagatti and Carlo Abbà, councilman for Productive Activities and Tourism for the city. Other leaders who participated included Renato Mattioni, general secretary of the Monza Chamber of Commerce, Giovanni Barzaghi, Apa Confartigianato president, the Vice-Governor of Lombardy Fabrizio Sala and Massimo Manelli, vice-director of Monza Assolombarda. They gave talks and exchanged opinions face-to-face.

“We are proud of hosting the Chinese Lantern Festival since it was held in several major European cities before,” said Mayor Scanagatti. “This is another sign of the growing interest in our beautiful city. This also helps play a prominent role in developing further relationships with China.”

The meeting included Skype calls from China.

Monza Chamber of Commerce head Mattioni noted that bilateral trade between Italy and Mainland China and Hong Kong in the first nine months of 2015 included 21 billion euros in imports and 12 billion euros in exports. And it isn’t only the well-publicized trend of Chinese firms pursuing deals in Italy. According to the same just-released study by the Monza Chamber of Commerce, Italian stakeholders now are involved in 1,577 Chinese companies in Mainland China.

“The number of Italian stakeholders in Chinese companies has increased dramatically by 41.4 percent since 2007,” said Mattioni.

In the 10 years from 2004 to 2014, Italian exports to Mainland China and Hong Kong more than doubled from 7.3 to 15.9 billion euros annually.

“And more than one-third of this total volume is from Lombardy,” Mattioni noted. “Brianza export values alone reached 260 million euros, while imports averaged 550 million euros”.

Top exporting sectors from Italy to China are machinery and equipment (2.6 billion euros annually, 22.6 percent), leather goods (1.5 billion euros) and textile garments (1.4 billion euros), while leading imports from China are computers and electronic products (2.8 billion euros) and garments ( 2.5 billion euros) .

For its part, Sichuan’s high-tech industry has been developing rapidly. The capital city Chengdu is the western hub for business and trade, where the production of computers and telecommunications equipment has continued to grow rapidly, increasing their share of gross industrial output from 5.5 percent in 2010 to 10.3 percent in 2013. Sichuan is also one of the major agricultural centers for the country.

Via Skype from China, Sergio Maffettone, consul-general in Chongqing, outlined opportunities for Italian companies in Sichuan by introducing the advantages of the province’s research and development. He invited the Italian firms to strengthen cooperation with Sichuan especially in new energy, agricultural products, aerospace and healthcare.

Barzaghi, president of Apa Confartigianato Monza, said that “looking abroad plays a vital role for our enterprises that still struggle with the domestic demand”.

“It is still hard to emerge from the swamp of stagnation on the domestic level. So looking abroad is a healthy, wise choice,” he said.

Abbà, councilman for Productive Activities and Tourism in Monza, said that deepening knowledge of each other’s culture helps build business ties.

“Culture affects economic exchanges and strong bilateral trust,” he said.

More photos of Chinese Lantern Festival