On the morning of March 22nd, President Xi Jinping and Italian president Matarella, met the representatives of Sino-Italian cultural cooperation mechanism, Sino-Italian Entrepreneurs Committee and Sino-Italian third party market cooperation forum at the presidential palace, and delivered an important speech.

The two heads of state met with representatives of China and Italy

 

At the same day, the second meeting of Sino-Italian cultural cooperation mechanism was held in the Palazzo Barberini in Rome. Luo Shugang, Minister of Culture and Tourism, Liu Yuzhu, Director of the State Administration of Cultural Relics, Bonisoli, Minister of Cultural Heritage and Activity of Italy, Borgonzoni and Vaka, Minister of Cultural Heritage and Activity of Italy, and Dry Dina, Minister of agriculture, food and forestry policy and tourism, attended the meeting and delivered speeches. The meeting was presided over by former Italian Deputy Prime Minister and Italian coordinator of the mechanism. More than 40 Chinese and Italian important cultural and tourism institutions, enterprises had attended the meeting, including Beijing Palace Museum, China National Museum, China National Theatre, China Tourism Research Institute, SPCCD, Teatro alla Scala, Venice Biennale foundation, Milan Furniture Exhibition, etc., also with more than 200 media reporters.

The second meeting of Sino-Italian cultural cooperation mechanism was held in the Palazzo Barberini in Rome

 

Luo Shugang delivered a keynote speech at the conference entitled "exchange and mutual learning, mutual benefit and win-win results ——jointly building a new phase of Sino-Italian cultural and tourism cooperation". He Highly appraised the Sino Italian cultural cooperation mechanism and said that two countries have achieved fruitful cooperation in the fields of cultural heritage, culture and art, creative design, tourism, film and other fields with the joint efforts of the two sides members. In particular, they have made important progress in building "one belt and one road", preventing illegal entry and exit of cultural relics and the equal place of world heritage sites. He thanked the government of Italy for returning 796 pieces of cultural relics and artworks to China. The mechanism has played an important role in improving the level of cooperation, expanding cooperation fields and enriching cooperation levels, and greatly enriched the connotation and extension of bilateral cultural relations. It is hoped that the two sides will take the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Italy as an opportunity to give full play to the role of mechanism platform, work together to run a "Year of Culture and Tourism", make contributions to consolidating the traditional friendship between China and Italy and promoting the development of Sino-Italian comprehensive strategic partnership.

Luo Shugang, Minister of Culture and Tourism of China delivered a speech.

 

Bonisoli said that the Sino-Italian cultural cooperation mechanism had set a model for cultural exchanges and mutual learning between the East and the west and played a positive role in promoting the comprehensive and in-depth development of cultural exchanges and cooperation between the two countries. He will continue to deepen cooperation with China and constantly push Sino-Italian relations to a new level.

Dry Dina said that Sino-Italian tourism cooperation has complementary advantages, huge potential and broad prospects, and he is willing to work with China to promote high-quality and sustainable development of Sino-Italian tourism exchanges and cooperation.

Speech by Bonisoli, Minister of Cultural Heritage and Activity of Italy

 

Representatives of member units of both sides of the mechanism introduced the achievements of cooperation in various fields in the past two years since the establishment of the mechanism. Leaders from State Administration of Cultural Heritage of China, Italian Ministry of cultural Heritage and Activity, Italian National Committee of UNESCO, Chinese Art Museum, China Foreign Culture Group Co., Ltd., and SPCCD had made speeches. The meeting had a discussion on further strengthen of mechanism construction and promotion of sustainable development, and also put forward constructive suggestions and ideas for future cooperation.

Zhang Zhan, Director of SPCCD, delivered a speech on behalf of member units.

 

During the visit, Luo Shugang met BoniSolli and Dry Dina respectively, and discussed further deepening bilateral cultural relations and expanding tourism cooperation, and reached an important consensus. They agreed to implement the consensus reached between President Xi Jinping and President Mattarella and take the Sino-Italian diplomatic relations 50th anniversary in 2020 as an opportunity to run the Sino-Italian cultural tourism year. The two sides also signed the certificate of return of 796 Chinese cultural relics and works of art between the Ministry of culture and tourism of the people's Republic of China and the Ministry of cultural heritage and activities of the Republic of Italy, and the letter of intent to implement the cooperation and promotion of sustainable tourism between the Ministry of culture and tourism of the people's Republic of China and the Ministry of agriculture, food and forestry policy and tourism of the Republic of Italy. Liu Yuzhu accompanied the meeting and signed cooperation documents with Italy on cultural relics protection and World Heritage site pairing.