As Chinese president Xi Jinping begins his state visit to Italy today, my country is poised to sign a memorandum of understanding to support Beijing’s Belt and Road investment programme. Public debate over the Italian government’s actions has been intense, with much criticism of Rome’s move. Let us look at numbers and facts. Among large EU countries, Italy does the least business with China, exporting only €13bn in goods in 2018. France exported 58 per cent more and Germany seven times that amount.
During the past 15 years, the UK has attracted €90bn of Chinese foreign direct investment and Germany €45bn, while Italy had only €22bn. The statistics are even starker for greenfield projects, which generate more new jobs. Chinese companies have created 35,000 jobs in the UK and 20,000 in Germany, but only slightly more than 3,000 in Italy, according to fDi Markets. Yet Italy has invested €20bn in China and created about 75,000 jobs. That is because Chinese companies have mostly acquired existing businesses, while Italian companies mainly invested in greenfield projects.
The map of Chinese investment is dotted with European ports including Piraeus, Valencia, Marseille, Bilbao, Le Havre, Rotterdam, and Malta. But the only Italian port is Vado Ligure. Finally, the German city of Duisburg is closely connected to China. In other words, the new Silk Road is already in Europe.