On January 7th, Luo Shugang, Chinese minister of Culture and Tourism, met with Luca Ferrari, newly-appointed Italian ambassador to China. Both sides had in-depth exchanges on such proposals as hosting the year of culture and tourism in 2020 and further deepening exchanges and cooperation in culture and tourism.
Luo Shugang expressed that China and Italy, as two typical ancient civilizations in the world, boast abundant and unique cultural and tourism resources. With the joint efforts of the two sides, they have seen strong impetus in culture and tourism, conducted numerous exchanges in different areas and at different levels and established a stable and pragmatic framework for win-win cooperation that has become an active part of China-Italy relations.
In March, 2019, during his state visit to Italy, President Xi Jinping announced jointly with Italian President Sergio Mattarella that a year of culture and tourism will be held on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the diplomatic relations between China and Italy in 2020. It is hoped that both sides could work closely to give full play to the role of cultural cooperation between China and Italy, and push forward the pragmatic cooperation in cultural heritage, performing arts, visual arts and tourism. It is also expected to host the year of culture and tourism in 2020, enlarge the scale of two-way visits and consolidate the foundation of the friendship for China-Italy comprehensive strategic partnership.
Luca Ferrari highly agreed upon above-mentioned proposal, and was willing to work with the Chinese side to push ahead with the exchanges and cooperation in culture and tourism and further enhance the friendship between two peoples.