Key initiatives
The Bank of China has been serving the China-Italy Business Forum since 2014. It was elected as a forum chair for the Chinese side last year for its vital role in boosting economic growth and facilitating collaboration in areas such as trade, investment, technology and tourism between the two countries.
Over the past year, BOC has worked closely with other sponsors and participants to establish an enterprise-to-enterprise platform and government-to-enterprise cooperation channel.
BOC was involved in the following activities:
- June 11, 2014, inaugural meeting of the Business Forum China-Italy held in Beijing. BOC, as the president on the China side, delivered a speech.
- Sept 22, 2014, China-Italy Financial Seminar organized by the China Chamber of Commerce for Import and Export of Machinery and Electronic Products and the Bank of China was held at BOC.
- Oct 14, 2014, representatives from China and Italy held a communication meeting attended by government officials from the two sides, together with a forum promoting business activities.
- May 5, 2016, third meeting in Italy welcomed Chinese and Italian foreign ministers who exchanged thoughts on food, healthcare, green economy, finance and infrastructure, steel, smart manufacturing, aerospace and other fields.
- Feb 16, 2017, Pirelli hosted the China-Italy Financial Forum in Italy's Milan, where 21 officials had in-depth discussions on topics such as "Made in China 2025", Sino-Italian relations and the Belt and Road Initiative. The Chinese delegation was led by BOC.
- Feb 22, 2017, the fourth meeting was held in Beijing. BOC witnessed the signing of an outcome document.
- Nov 30, 2017, BOC, together with Pirelli, organized Sino-Italian Forum on Belt and Road Initiative to explain opportunities brought by the plan to Italy. The effort was widely praised by local commentators.
- July 31, 2018, BOC executives Chen Siqing, Wang Xiquan and Lin Jingwei were invited to the Italian embassy.
- BOC held four cross-border matchmaking events for SMEs in Italy in 2015, 2017 and 2018. Recently the fourth matchmaking event in Qingdao of over 400 "one-on-one" negotiation activities in five rounds saw 119 enterprises announcing their intentions to cooperate, 37 having signed agreements and 35 planning to conduct on-the-spot investigations.
(China Daily 11/06/2018 page9)
