(ANSA) - TRIESTE, 08 LUG - "At the beginning of the Silk Road project, Italy had started well, but then fell asleep," said former Italy's Prime Minister Romano Prodi, speaking this morning at the webinar organized by Alma Mater Studiorum, University of Bologna, University of Genoa, Universities of Insubria and Trieste, as part of the Prin project named "Belt and Road Initiative." "Italy - underlined Prodi - is the natural terminal of the sea route of the Silk Road. We have two arches, the Tyrrhenian one and the Adriatic one, both very close to the large markets in the North".

The former president of the EU Commission added that the country has not yet been able to better manage the potential of the ports of Taranto and Gioia Tauro and exploit those of the northern airports.

According to Prodi, "two Port Authorities, one for the Tyrrhenian Sea and one for the Adriatic Sea, should have been set up for some time, to create a Tyrrhenian arrival arch (Livorno, Genoa, La Spezia and Savona up to Marseille) and an Adriatic arch (Ravenna, Venice, Trieste and Monfalcone, Fiume/Rijeka and Capodistria(Koper), strong enough to become a magnet for Europe-China trade." Today, however, he remarked, "the Silk Road both by sea and by land remains away in the North, and this just doesn't make any sense." "The Italian problem - said Prodi at the end his speech - is to show its greatness in front of greatness. Exactly what we are not doing now." (ANSA).