Italian car design industry woos investment from China's car makers

Greater exposure to the international market of China's home-brand cars has attracted strong interest from Italian automobile design companies.

Invest in Turin and Piedmont, an Italian investment promotion organization, staged its first ever event in China on Thursday with an introduction to the Italian car design industry for Chinese car producers.

Gianmarco Giorda, marketing manager of the organization said that Italian companies have an edge in auto-making technology, design and industry management. They are seeking a partnership with Chinese car makers, whose advantages in production cost have become a major driving force behind China's auto export surge.

The country's home-brand cars had secured 23.74 percent of the domestic market share by the end of 2005, up 10.59 percent on the 2002 figure. Meanwhile, China exported 173,000 complete cars in the first seven months of this year, on a par with last year's total, according to figures released by the Ministry of Commerce.

Turin and Piedmont, the headquarters of Fiat, is located in northern Italy and is home to research and development centers of two of China's major auto makers, the Jianghuai Auto Corp, based in east China's Anhui Province, and Chang'an Automobile, based in west China's Chongqing Municipality.