Amiable Chinese officials and efficient
state-owned business
Davide
Cucino studied in Beijing in the early 1990s
"Last Saturday was the 30th
anniversary of my stay in China. And I still remember the first day I arrived
here. It was summer, really hot. There were noisy sounds and stalls selling
watermelons everywhere," Davide recalled at the beginning of the
interview. “Before I came, I had studied Chinese and Chinese history in Italy,
especially about the socioeconomic reforms during the Song Dynasty. That was
why I won the scholarship from the Chinese government and finally made my trip
to China for further study.” The once student but now typical Italian
businessman with a suit and a bow tie continued, “But seeing is believing. China
and the Chinese were different from what I had read in books.”
When Davide
Cucino just arrived in Beijing
Davide was the Chairman of the China-Italy
Chamber of Commerce for the first time from 2002 to 2010, and then served as
the Chairman of the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China from 2011 to
2014. These two experiences renewed Davide’s impressions on Chinese government
officials. “At first, I knew little about how everything was going. Before
meetings, I prepared a lot and was quite nervous. In fact, during the meeting, they
told us not to worry and feel relaxed. The officials, including Wu Yi, then
Minister of Commerce, and Zhong Shan, current Minister of Commerce, provided us
with a great atmosphere to communicate with each other. And my
colleagues and I all accumulated a wealth of experience about how to do
business in China during the process of dealing with Chinese government
officials."
