Italy will not be dependent on China, minister says

Hamburger Hafen und Logistik AG

27/10/2022 14:32

ROME, Oct 27 (Reuters) - Italy will not be dependent on
Chinese trade or technology and will safeguard any sector deemed
as strategic, the new industry minister said on Thursday.
    Adolfo Urso spoke when asked to comment on Germany's recent
decision to allow China's Cosco to buy a stake in a Hamburg port
terminal run by logistics firm HHLA  HHFGn.DE  - a company which
also operates in the Italian port of Trieste.
    "We will not put ourselves into the hands of the Chinese,"
Urso told a journalist at a conference in Rome.
    Urso is a senior figure in the Brothers of Italy, the party
of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni who was sworn in last week, and
a former chair of an influential parliamentary committee on
security.
    "If others intend to move from energy dependency, and
therefore from Russian power, to technological or to some extent
commercial dependence on China, we will not follow them," Urso
added.
    Italy in 2019 became the first major industrialised nation
to sign up to China's Belt and Road Initiative - a colossal
project designed to improve Beijing's trade reach. 
    Little has so far come of the pact. Ahead of Meloni's
election victory, she told Reuters she would not look to pursue
the initiative.
    Francesco Galietti, founder of political risk consultancy
Policy Sonar, said Italy was moving faster than Germany in
disengaging from Russia and China.
    "Trieste and Hamburg are Siamese twins. They are two
important ports, both located on strategic corridors connecting
the cold seas to the Mediterranean," he told Reuters.
    Earlier this week, Urso said Meloni's administration would
continue to use anti-takeover legislation or so-called "golden
powers" to ward off unwanted bids on industries deemed of
strategic importance.
        Former Prime Minister Mario Draghi repeatedly used
golden powers to block attempts by China to extend its presence
in the euro zone's third-largest economy.
 (Reporting by Angelo Amante and Giuseppe Fonte; Editing by
Andrew Heavens)
 ((Angelo.Amante@thomsonreuters.com;))