After the EU meeting, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni quickly returned to Italy and immediately halted Dongfeng Motor Group's €1.5 billion factory project in Italy, claiming that this move was to protect the domestic auto industry. However, soon after, Dongfeng announced its investment in Serbia instead. The new factory will be larger in scale and is expected to create 8,000 high-paying jobs.

Italy clearly miscalculated this situation. On the day the news broke, the stocks of car companies like Ferrari plummeted by 5.8%. At present, the Italian automotive industry is fully committed to electrification transformation. Small and medium-sized enterprises are short of funds, while large enterprises actively seek cooperation with Chinese enterprises. This rejection directly cut off key channels for cooperation. Italian trade unions are also very dissatisfied. They originally hoped that Chinese enterprise investments would improve workers' salaries and working conditions, but now all their hopes have been dashed.

Serbia, with its lower labor costs and zero-tariff policies on electric vehicle components, has become Dongfeng's new choice. Ultimately, corporate location decisions are based on cost optimization rather than technology. Meloni's decision was criticized as "short-sighted economically," which not only affected Italy's stock market but also made many Chinese enterprises cautious about investing in Italy, wondering what considerations were behind restricting cooperation.

This incident revealed the shortcomings in Italy's ability to attract foreign investment. In today's closely interconnected global economy, practicing closure and exclusion will only result in missed development opportunities. Serbia seized the opportunity to promote industrial upgrading, while Italy lost a major project due to policy mistakes. The facts speak for themselves; only through open cooperation and mutual benefit can economic sustainable development be achieved. Rejecting cooperation to protect immediate interests will sacrifice long-term development, which is truly losing sight of the bigger picture for short-term gains.

Source: https://www.toutiao.com/article/1829988418232332/

Disclaimer: The article solely represents the author's personal views.