Italy’s centre-right government is turning to cash-rich China in the hope Beijing will help rescue it from financial crisis by making “significant” purchases of Italian bonds and investments in strategic companies.

　　意大利中右翼政府正向资金雄厚的中国求援，希望中国购买“相当大量的”意大利国债并投资其战略行业公司，帮助该国走出金融危机。

　　According to Italian officials, Lou Jiwei, chairman of China Investment Corp, one of the world’s largest sovereign wealth funds, led a delegation to Rome last week for talks with Giulio Tremonti, finance minister, and Italy’s Cassa Depositi e Prestiti, a state-controlled entity that has established an Italian Strategic Fund open to foreign investors.

　　意大利官员称，世界最大主权投资基金之一中投公司(CIC)的董事长楼继伟上周率领代表团到访罗马，与意大利财政部长朱利奥?特雷蒙蒂(Giulio Tremonti)和国家控股实体Cassa Depositi e Prestiti进行了会谈。Cassa Depositi e Prestiti设立了一只对外国投资者开放的意大利战略基金(Italian Strategic Fund)。

　　Italian officials were in Beijing two weeks ago to meet CIC and China’s State Administration of Foreign Exchange (Safe), which manages the bulk of China’s $3,200bn foreign exchange reserves. Vittorio Grilli, head of treasury, met Chinese investors in Beijing in August. Italian officials said further negotiations were expected to take place soon.

　　两周前，意大利官员在北京会见了中投公司和中国国家外汇管理局(SAFE)的代表。SAFE掌管着中国3.2万亿美元的外汇储备。意大利财政部副部长维托里奥?格利里(Vittorio Grilli)8月在北京会见了中国多家投资机构的代表。意大利官员表示，双方不久将进行进一步的磋商。

　　The possibility of Chinese investment comes at a critical moment for Italy with markets demanding increasingly high yields to buy public sector debt that is projected to reach 120 per cent of gross domestic product this year, a ratio second only to Greece in the eurozone.

　　目前意大利正处在一个关键时刻。市场不断推高意大利公共部门债券的收益率水平。今年，意大利公共债务据估计将达到国内生产总值(GDP)的120%，在欧元区仅次于希腊。

　　Mr Tremonti has written extensively in the past about his fears of China’s “reverse colonisation” of Europe. But he has been driven to seek new alternatives as Europe prevaricates over strengthening its bail-out fund and the European Central Bank warns that its month-old bond-buying programme cannot go on indefinitely. In a reflection of Italy’s refinancing problems, the Treasury on Monday sold ￠11.5bn of short-term notes at sharply higher yields.

　　特雷蒙蒂过去曾撰写大量担心中国对欧洲实行“逆向殖民”的文章。但此刻他不得不寻找其它救星，目前欧洲在加强其纾困基金问题上举棋不定，而欧洲央行(ECB)警告称，其实行了一个月的债券购买计划不可能无限期延续下去。意大利在再融资上遇到困境的一个迹象是，周一意大利财政部以大幅升高的收益率对外发售了115亿欧元的短期票据。

　　European analysts were cautious over the outcome of talks. Despite Beijing’s numerous expressions of confidence in the creditworthiness of countries like Greece and Portugal analysts say Chinese purchases of peripheral European debt have been relatively small.

　　欧洲分析人士对上述谈判的结果出言谨慎。尽管中国多次对希腊和葡萄牙等国的信用可靠性表示充满信心，但分析人士称，中国购买欧元区外围国家国债的规模迄今相对较小。

　　How much of Italy’s ￠1,900bn of debt is already held by China is unclear , though one Italian official told the FT that Beijing held about 4 per cent.

　　意大利公共债务规模为1.9万亿欧元，中国已持有多大比例仍不清楚，尽管一位意大利官员对英国《金融时报》表示，中国持有大约4%。

　　Italy’s debt crisis has forced the government to consider possible sales of strategic stakes in companies such as Enel, the Italian power utility, and Eni, the oil and gas multinational.

　　意大利陷入债务危机，迫使该国政府考虑出售一些公司战略股份的可能性，包括意大利国家电力公司(Enel)和跨国石油天然气公司埃尼(Eni)。

　　China’s embassy in Rome had no immediate comment.

　　中国驻罗马大使馆未立即置评。