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SCMP Reporter

THE legendary Italian traveller Marco Polo was familiar with this part of the world, having spent 17 years in the court of Kublai Khan in China before most other Europeans had set their sights on the Orient.

  Unfortunately, Italian businessmen and traders were not as enterprising as the Venetian venturer of the 13th century.

   Italian businessmen discovered Asia only around the late 1970s, giving their European competitors a significant edge.

  But since they began making their presence in Asia more permanent and stable, Italian business has flourished.

  The first Asian country to be discovered by Italy in trade terms was Japan.

  Japan is the major market for Italian goods and services in Asia.

  Much more recently, China has emerged as the second biggest market for Italian produce. Hongkong occupies the number three spot.

  It was only in the mid-1980s that Southeast Asia attracted Italian business interests as the economies of some countries in the region, such as Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia, started to expand.

  Because of the growing business and trade links between Italy and Asia, Rome maintains several trade offices in the region.

  While the Italian trade office in Japan covered the important Japanese market and also sometimes China, the Hongkong office of the Italian Trade Commission had a regional function, said Italy's Trade Commissioner heading the Hongkong office, Mr Aniello Musella.

  The Hongkong office covers China, Taiwan, South Korea and parts of Southeast Asia not covered by the regional office in Singapore.

  In terms of trade with Hongkong, Italy is the third largest European Community exporter after Germany and Britain.

  Last year, Hongkong's imports from Italy totalled US$1.9 billion, an increase of 26 per cent over the previous year.

  Of this amount, $606 million worth of goods was re-exported to China, which was also a 41 per cent increase over 1991.

  Hongkong exports to Italy last year totalled US$1.6 billion, a rise of 25 per cent over 1991. The total value of trade between Italy and Hongkong then was US$3.6 billion.

  More Italian companies are operating in Hongkong than anywhere else in the region.

  Besides some 200 companies present here, the territory also has the highest number of operating Italian banks - seven of them - with another 15 banks having representative offices.

  Italy's major exports to Hongkong and China are clothing and accessories, textile yarn, jewellery, leather, building materials, medicinal and pharmaceutical products, and plant and machinery for specific industries.

  There is a perceptible shift away from consumer goods, though they still lead the field, because such goods are becoming more expensive to produce and so less and less competitive.

  Italian companies are finding out that if they wish to hold the market, then they should go through local partners and export their technology rather than the finished product.

  Producing the goods locally with Italian technology appears to be the answer to growing competitiveness.

  Mr Musella said that the growing economic and trade links between Italy and Hongkong-China were a good sign.

  He believed that if the market in China continued to behave in the present form over the next couple of years, Italian companies which were part of big business groups, dealing with telecommunications, chemicals, machinery and high technology, would set themselves up in Hongkong and China.

   further boosting trade and commerce with Italy.



Trade links overcome late start