The liberal Italy of Berlusconi and Tremonti asks for help from communist China. Our government would like to convince Beijing to buy Italian government bonds and to invest part of its immense liquidity in some strategic companies. The scoop comes from the Financial Times, which revealed a recent meeting with Lou Jiwei, chairman of the very rich China Investment Corp (Cic) sovereign wealth fund, superminister Tremonti and the heads of Cassa Depositi e Prestiti.
The episode was confirmed by Treasury sources, who specified that the summit took place on 6 September. The visit of the Chinese delegation therefore arrived just two weeks after Vittorio Grilli's trip to Beijing, where the director general of the Treasury met representatives of the CIC itself and of the Chinese State Administration for Foreign Exchange (SAFE). According to the British newspaper, new negotiations will soon take place.
