An agreement Thursday for sale
of a 35% share in Cdp-Reti to State Grid Corporation of China
reflects an increasing trend for Chinese investment in Italy in
what some experts have dubbed the "Marco Polo effect".
The agreement between Sgcc and the Cassa Depositi e
Prestiti (Cdp) worth some 2 billion euros is the main result of
an Italian trade visit under way in China led by Treasury
Minister Pier Carlo Padoan accompanied by Cdp President Franco
Bassanini, diplomatic sources say.
Padoan underlined that while hunting for investors Italy is
determined to meet a commitment to the EU to privatise State-run
industries worth some 0.7% of GDP.
"We are working on several different chapters," he said.
The minister insisted on the need for long-term investment in
both directions as a major plank of Italy's rotating
chairmanship of the European Union.
During the trip the CDP also signed a memorandum of
understanding with the China Development Bank for promotion of
Chinese investment in Italy.
Bassanini said managers of the China Investment Corporation
(CIC) invited him to open a permanent CDP office in Beijing.
One early harbinger of the "Maco Polo" trend - coined by
authors of a study for the Chatham House think tank in London --
was the Huawei telecommunications concern, which opened a Milan
office in 2004 and today has cooperation accords with all the
main Italian operators in the sector.
In 2012 Shandong Heavy Industries Group-Weichai acquired a
controlling interest in the Ferretti luxury yacht producer with
a 374-million-euro investment.
The People's Bank of China, the central bank, has bought
stakes of 2% each in the Italian energy giants ENI and ENEL.
Some 79 Chinese companies are believed to be doing business
in Italy including more than 52 from Hong Kong with an overall
turnover of 2.665 million euros, providing work for some 5,534
people, according to T-Mag magazine.
is one of the giants of the Chinese "new economy," SGCC
was founded in 2002 with capital of 200 billion yuan (some 24
billion euros) to manage domestic energy distribution and invest
in the sector abroad.
The agreement will be signed in Rome by the end of July,
marking "an important result" for the Italian trade mission
under way in China aiming "to reinforce trade and investment
relations between China and Italy, which are already good and
offer many other prospects," Padoan said.
On Friday the trade mission's final leg will be a stop in
Hong Kong to woo possible investors from the former British-run
territory.
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