Spotlight: Italian experts see AIIB partnership as natural amid changing global balance of power

The birth of an alternative international bank, the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), as well as Italy's decision to join the China-proposed institution, is an irresistible trend amid the changing global balance of power, Italian experts said Tuesday.

The Italian Ministry of Economy and Finance confirmed earlier in the day that Italy, along with France and Germany, were planning to join the AIIB, which was launched last year and is expected to promote development and contribute to global growth.

SINO-ITALIAN INNOVATION ROAD

Giuliano Noci, vice rector for China and a marketing professor at Polytechnic University of Milan, said he welcomed as an "extraordinarily positive decision" the government's announcement that Italy intends to become a prospective founding member of the bank.

"This move marks the natural evolution of long-term collaboration between the two countries," Noci told Xinhua.

He said Italy has both big potential and a strategic geographic position for exporting more goods to China, but lacks "logistics integration" to ease business flows.

Joining the AIIB, which is aimed at helping finance infrastructure projects across Asia and expected to come into being by the end of 2015, would help exploit the potential of increasing Chinese investments for "structured logistics hubs" in Italy, thus boosting bilateral trade exchanges, he added.

Noci voiced his hope that Italy's move would enhance the building of a "Sino-Italian innovation road," saying it should "combine the Italian creativity with the Chinese executive capacity" in all kinds of projects.

EU BOOST FOR "BELT, ROAD" INITIATIVES

Claudia Segre, secretary-general of Assiom Forex, an Italian financial markets association, said Italy and other European nations that have shown interest in the AIIB are at the center of China's initiatives of building the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, which will open new train and ship routes between China and many other countries.

The planned membership of Italy, France and Germany, which followed Britain's application last week to be a founding member of the 50-billion-U.S.-dollar bank, highlights "Europe's awareness of the importance of the Belt and Road Initiatives for development," she said.

In her view, the three countries' official stance on their membership was a "natural consequence" of the "geopolitical shifts seen during the past months," as well as a "clear signal of how global balances are shifting."

Many have seen the European countries' move as a challenge to the United States, which has declined to support the AIIB and made efforts to keep Western countries out of the new institution citing concerns about its governance, Segre noted.

"But in fact Europe has shown willingness to play an independent role in foreign policy and free itself from the decisions imposed by the United States," she stressed.

What the AIIB is particularly offering to European countries, she said, is "the possibility of independency from the political logic, often anti-Chinese, of one nation."

China has already surpassed the World Bank (WB) to become the biggest financier of the African continent, Segre said.

"INCOHERENT U.S. OPPOSITION"

Alberto Forchielli, managing partner at the Mandarin Capital Partners private equity fund, said it is groundless for the United States to accuse China of wanting to exert influence through the AIIB.

"Until now, any desire to escape underdevelopment would have been subjected to review by the WB and the Asian Development Bank (ADB)," which are controlled by the United States, Europe and Japan, he said.

There are contradictions in the current financing mechanism, he said. Backward nations cannot wait any longer, but the WB and ADB are besieged by expanding requests not in proportion to their available budgets and their unpreparedness is striking considering the tasks they need to resolve.

"Over the years they have transformed into conservative temples afflicted by elephantiasis, slow decision-making and notably high salaries for their officers. I know their mechanisms well as I have worked for the WB," Forchielli said, adding that the birth of an alternative bank is part of the "natural order of things."

"The dynamics of the relations between countries is changing faster than what people believe. China is now the only country in the world capable of making machinery, money and talent available simultaneously for other countries and now intends to do so in Asia," Forchielli said.

Thus, he stressed, U.S. opposition appears incoherent as China possesses all the ingredients for a collaborative recipe, while Western countries have always hoped that it would become a responsible stakeholder in globalization.

"China needs to take care of foreign affairs, because there is no solution to the economic crisis without communal participation, and Europe is looking forward to overcoming the crisis," Forchielli noted, saying China is offering its resources to help global growth.

"Obviously, it will do so pursuing its own interests, just like the United States and their allies have done. But monitoring rather than condemning would be more opportune, collaborating instead of competing," he said. Endi