IMT Institute for Advanced Studies, Lucca Lucca, Italy Italo-Chinese economic cooperation in the XXI century: different actors and the search for a strategy PhD Program in Political Systems and Institutional Change XX Cycle By Marina Turcati 2008 ii The dissertation of Marina Turcati is approved. Program coordinator: Prof. Viktor Zaslavsky Supervisor: Prof. Peter Baehr iii v Contents Table of contents v Vita and publications vii Abstract x 1. First Chapter 1 1. 1 The Dimensions of Economic Cooperation Between Italy and China 1 1. 2 Italian Foreign Economic Policy since the Second Post-war Period 7 1. 3 Historical coordinates of the Italo-Chinese cooperation 16 1. 4 Crisis of cooperation and premises to the present stage 27 1. 5 Trajectories of development cooperation 34 1. 6 From cooperative crisis to the relaunching of relations between Italy and China: theoretical prospects 51 1.7 The reform of the company internationalisation system 71 1.7.1 Discipline and organization 73 1.8 Features of cooperation at the ministerial level 81 1.9 Environmental cooperation 93 1.10 Inlog China 113 v 2. Second Chapter 128 2.1 Italian Regions and economic cooperation toward China 128 2.2 The Tuscany Region 140 2.2.1 Historical dynamics 141 2.2.2 Tuscan industry 145 2.2.3 Tuscan Region: policies for supporting of enterprises 160 2.2.4 From Wenzhou to Prato: the migratory factor in the prospect of economic cooperation 174 2.2.5 Peculiar aspects of the economic cooperative Tuscan system: informal on the front of decision and action, but but centred on the work of Toscana Promozione 187 2. 3 The Lombardy Region 204 2.3.1 A few historical directives 204 2.3.2 An introduction to the economic cooperation in the Lombardy region and its social and economic framework 209 2.3.3 Relations between China and the Lombardy Region regarding institutional, economic and cultural cooperation and development 215 2.3.4 The Lombardy Region missions to China 220 2.3.5 The Lombardy exception: the shared strategic vision and the supremacy of practice over theory 241 2.3.6 The Lombardy activity carried out on Chinese territory 251 2.4 The Veneto Region 266 2.4.1 A historical overview 266 2.4.2 Introduction to the current phase 270 2.4.3 The Sprint network 277 2.4.4 The Veneto Foreign Trade Center 277 2.4.5 Veneto Sviluppo S.p.A. and Veneto Innovazione 283 2.4.5 Relations between the Veneto Region and the 290 vi People’s Republic of China 2.5 The Region Emilia Romagna 299 2.5.1 Historical developments 299 2.5.2 Institutions and regional economy 305 2.5.3 Emilia Romagna Region and economic cooperation: premise to the Chinese case 311 2.5.4 The core of Emilia Romagna cooperation with China: Xintiandi service centre, university, productive chain 322 2.5.5 The contribution of the Emilian Chambers of commerce system to internationalization in China 338 3. Third Chapter 343 3. 1 Italian economic cooperation in China: the Guangdong case 343 3.2 An introduction 343 3.3 The China-Italy Chamber of Commerce 352 3.3.1 Origin and Development of the Chamber 356 3.4 The Institute for Foreign Trade or Italia Trade Commission 360 3.5 The Italian Economic Cooperation face to Chinese "Local Capitalism” 366 3.6 The Consulate General of Italy in Canton: “More Italy in China, more China in Italy” 385 3.7 Italian Companies and Prospects of Second Industrial Revolution in Guangdong 391 3.7.1 The Case of Zhuhai City 404 4. General Bibliography 409 vii viii Vita 1979 Born, Pordenone, Italy 2003 Degree in International and Diplomatic Sciences Final marks: 110cum laude/110 Università di Trieste Trieste, Italy 2005 Intensive Chinese Mandarin Course Attendance Certificate Dalian University of Foreign Languages 2006 Conférence Internationale “Droits de propriété, Economie et Environnement” Centre d’Analyse Economique Environment Faculté d’Economie Appliquée Université Paul Cézanne Aix en Provence Lingnan University (Hong Kong) Research period abroad for the PhD Thesis under the supervision of my tutor, Prof. Peter Baehr, head of the Social Sciences Department 2008 Internship at the External Relations office Zhen Wei Group Zhuhai City (Guangdong) ix x Abstract My thesis deals with economic cooperation between Italy and China with particular reference to the last decade approximately, that is to say the period that followed the institutional crisis of early to mid-1990s and registered a renewal in Italo-Chinese relations. Cooperation has proven to be the most important instrument in the definition of Italo-Chinese relations and its focus has been so far the advancement of economic partnership between the two countries. In addition, since the nineties the field of State-industry relations has experienced an important evolution in Italy, and a greater need for institutional support favouring the economic expansion abroad has emerged. Given all these concurrent factors that make the economic cooperation scenario very dynamic at this moment, I decided to investigate how China can represent a decisive element of ‘opportunity and challenge’ (Bradanini, 2005) for the Sistema Italia, so as to see if economic cooperation in the case of China show original aspects, that contradicts the usual vision of a ‘trading State’ or a ‘negotiating State’, referred to Italian inability to act strategically in the sphere of globalization xi and fulfil the expectations due to its international comparative advantages. Therefore I first defined economic cooperation, and contextualized the notion by means of a critical historical reconstruction of Italo-Chinese relations, aimed at individuating the main feature of Italy’s stance toward China, and then I examined the recent evolution in terms of actors and devices of economic cooperation, its criteria and goals. In order to do so, I structured my work in three sections: national level, sub national level, and the cooperation structures that operate in China, taking into consideration the case of Italian economic cooperation in the Chinese Province of Guangdong. My findings do not confirm the hypothesis of a ‘Chinese exception’ in Italian economic cooperation field. Even though some important achievements have marked the initiatives taken during the last years, they do not challenge the status quo of cooperation. In particular, more advanced fronts of activity, namely the Italian Ministry of the Environment cooperation program and the Italian Regions multiple efforts to sustain the internationalization of Italian local economies in China, do not seem to move beyond conjuncturalism, or a reediting of some of the traditional flaws of central government intervention into the economy. xii First Chapter The Dimensions of Economic Cooperation between Italy and China The concept of economic cooperation, with reference to the relations between Italy and China that have developed since the second half of the nineties, refers to a field of study rather uncertain, that the literature has just begun to take into account in recent years. This is partly due to the fact that the economic issues considered through the last fifty years or so belong to an "age of disintegration", as Alessandro Roncaglia names it in his analysis of the historical evolution of economic studies, where research would take several alternative directions thereby diversifying its foundations as well. Accordingly, Roncaglia writes that: “The opposition is [now] manifest between a narrow vision of economic theory on one side, that values the exactitude ensured by axioms, thus making use of ad hoc, simplified constructions in order to tackle the problems originated in the comparison of concrete economic systems, and a wider vision on the other hand, which renounces a monolithic, all including theoretical structure, and follows a set of different research strategies marked by an increased attention to the realism of the analysis”1. In the second direction, among the several issues to be faced with, the question concerning the ‘definition of the concept’ of reason, of welfare, of development, of equality and so on, 1 Roncaglia, A., La ricchezza delle idee, Storia del pensiero economico, Rome, 2006, pp. 516-558 1 acquires major relevance, and often the search for an adequate meaning becomes interdisciplinary as a result of the importance that other social sciences like psychology, politics, ethics, ecology acquire in the survey. In addition, the separateness of different paths of research into the society or into the man does not prove to be an ever-consistent feature of work.2 Therefore, such ‘total’ aspiration for understanding the problem, even if related to a not so large field of analysis, motivates the choice to illustrate the actors, instruments, and some of the factors that contributed to the current definition of economic cooperation between Italy and China, while, on the other hand, cooperation must be intended first as the policy implemented by the government at various levels and with the contribution of different organizations, both public and private, in order to promote economic exchanges, trade, and the internationalization of the national industry abroad. Such formula is coined by looking at the vicissitudes of Italy’s bilateral economic cooperation, as well as by resuming the institutional mission the Directorate General for Multilateral Economic and Financial Cooperation (DGCE) at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has committed to. In fact, the process that led to the adoption of the range of measures today envisioned as means of economic cooperation is articulated and originated largely from three kinds of events: the institutional progress at the national level; the dynamics of international economic integration that have affected the Italian productive system; the competition with other actors at supranational level in the definition of new goals, planning and the provision of adequate areas of intervention.