Business Roundtable on Energy Transition in China, December 1st

Hosted at the beautiful premises of EY Beijing, the China-Italy Chamber of Commerce organised a business roundtable, conceived as a follow-up of the 2021 “Italy-China: Energy Transition” forum. This 2023 edition of the CICC business roundtable was aimed at discussing the Italian expertise and innovation in the path toward energy transition.

Opening remarks were given by:

• Paolo Bazzoni, Chairman of the China Italy Chamber of Commerce, BoD Bonfiglioli Drives Shanghai, and BoD Assocamerestero; 
• Marco Midolo, First Counsellor and Head of the Economic and Commercial Office at the Embassy of Italy to the P.R.C.;
• Hoffman Cheong, China North Managing Partner, EY.

In their introductory speeches, they all put great emphasis on the potential for enhancing the cooperation between Italy and China in the energy transition, moving from carbon to greener alternatives of power generation.

The discussion which followed focused on two main topics:

1) Reconversion and renewables

2) ESG

showcasing Italian value proposition and propelling development of new business cooperation opportunities with local partners.

Two important key-note speeches were delivered by Sam Shiao, partner at EY Beijing, who shared some very important data and findings from the EY team on the evolution of the alternative sources of energy production both in China and abroad.

He was followed by David Zheng, Director of Tianjin Italian SME Industrial Park, Tianjin Port Free Trade Zone Administrative Committee, who introduced the investments currently carried out in this field at the TJPFTZ.

The second part of the event was opened to testimonials from the enterprises engaged in the energy sector.

First we listened to a speech by Guanglian Pang, Executive Board Member, Vice Secretary General, China Petroleum and Chemical Industry Federation (CPCIF) who gave his views on China energy transition and China-Europe cooperation.

A panel was then set-up, moderated by Vojiko Bratina, Science & Technology Attaché at the Delegation of EU to China, which included some prominent representatives from Italian companies:

• Gianni Di Giovanni, Chairman, ENI China – who focused on biorefineries and gave a very interesting birds-eye view on the trends of the alternative energy supply in China and abroad.
• Luigi Fiato, Director, RINA – discussed about hydrogen and pipeline – a fit for purpose concept, which arouse interest and discussion among panellists.
• Ermanno Vitali, CEO, FAAM China – gave his overview of lithium battery production, coming from his specialized company in the sector.
• Stefano Russano, GM, FUTURASUN – moved the attention of the audience to photovoltaics and the contribution it brings to zero-carbon goals.
• Davide Praino, GM Bitron Electronic China – talked about the recharging systems and the complications it brings to maintain sustainability in the sector.
• Cristina Xiaofang Cai, Region VP, Marie Tecnimont S.p.A. – spoke about innovative technology solutions for waste reuse and recycling; topic which generated further debate among panellists.

The session was followed by two brief presentations by Jack Yuan, CEO of Generali China Insurance who illustrated the approach by a property & casualty insurer to the green evolution in the Chinese internal market; and Mirko Turrina, GM of Goglio (Tianjin) Packaging Co., Ltd. who introduced the advance and green packaging system they have introduced and expanded recently in Tianjin.

Closing remarks by prof. Alessandra Guidi and Chairman Bazzoni concluded the event.

The generation of high attention in the audience (almost 70 participants) and the dynamic discussion among the speakers gave a clear signal of how important this topic is, and will be even more in the future.

Italian enterprises have a great knowledge and expertise in this field and there is an ample room for further enhancing cooperation between Italy and China.

Preceding the Business Roundtable, Paolo Bazzoni, CICC Chairman, together with Teti Licursi, Office Activities and New Initiatives Analyst at ENI, and Ermanno VItali, CEO  FAAM China, were invited to participate to BIZTalk, a TV Show run by CGTN which focused on green energy sector for the occasion.

This was a great opportunity to introduce the green energy initiatives that Italian companies are investing in and to highlight the importance of the sinergy between Italy and China to bring value to the energy transition in the country.

Thank to all the sponsors of the event: