He Guoqiang, member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and Secretary of the CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, delivered a keynote speech on the subject of “Enhance Exchange and Cooperation, Realize Mutual Benefits and Win-win” at the Cooperation Forum of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) of China and Italy in Milan, Italy, on the morning of June 7, 2010.

He said in a briefing on the development of China's economy that the Chinese government actively participated in macro-economic political dialogue for coordination, trade and financial cooperation while keeping the steady and fast development of domestic economy. China played a constructive role in jointly coping with the financial crisis and promoting the recovery of the world economy. At present, the world economy began to recover, however, to realize the all-round recovery of the economy is still faced with a lot of difficulties. The Chinese government will adhere to combining the steady and fast development of economy with accelerating the mode of the economic development, continue implementing positive financial policy and moderately easy monetary policy, properly handle the relationship between the adjustment of economic structure and possible inflation, strive to expand domestic demand, promote the balance of foreign trade, optimize the investment environment and actively boost the cooperation with foreign investors.

He Guoqiang stated that both China and Italy have a large number of SMEs and had cooperation potential is great. He put forward four suggestions on enhancing the cooperation between SMEs of the two countries: firstly, create a cooperation platform for SMEs of the two countries. Offer more opportunities and support for cooperation by way of scientific research, information network, cultural innovation, marketing, industrial design and name brands. Secondly, explore new cooperation sectors such as renewable energy, energy conservation and logistics while enhancing the cooperation in

traditional sectors so as to inject new vigor for the cooperation of SMEs. Thirdly, lift the cooperation level from the pure trade contact to mutual investment and joint exploration with the characteristics and advantages of the two countries. China welcomes Italian SMEs to participate in the construction of Chinese industrial parks. Fourthly, create better conditions for enterprise cooperation. The departments in charge of trade should take advantage of such mechanisms as China-Italy Joint Committee of Trade and Economic Cooperation to strive to remove investment and trade obstacles and establish a fair and open environment for the enterprises of the two countries.

The hall with the capacity of 300 persons was so packed that many Italian businessmen had to listen to He's speech in the corridor. An enthusiastic applause broke out in the hall when he finished his speech. Deputy Economic Development Minister Adolfo Urso, President of the Lombardy region Roberto Formigoni, and Chinese vice Minister of Commerce GAO Hucheng also attended the forum and delivered speeches. They spoke highly of the achievements made in China-Italy bilateral trade and economic cooperation and the great outlook. Following the forum, He attended the signing ceremony of agreements on bilateral cooperation. There were 11 cooperation agreements signed covering finance, culture, environmental protection and textile with a contract value of about 1.66 billion euros.

Before the forum, He met with Italian officials and representatives of Chinese enterprises respectively.