BEIJING -- Chinese Premier Li Qiang attended the opening ceremony of the seventh meeting of the China-Italy entrepreneurs committee with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni in Beijing on Sunday, calling for enhanced economic and trade cooperation between the two countries.

Addressing the opening ceremony, Li said since the establishment of the entrepreneurs committee 10 years ago, it has played a positive role in promoting economic and trade cooperation as well as bilateral relations.

Against the backdrop of a sluggish global economic recovery, China and Italy should strengthen economic and trade cooperation to inject more impetus into the development of the two countries, Li said.

He called on the two countries to vigorously promote and practice the Silk Road spirit of peace and cooperation, openness and inclusiveness, mutual learning and mutual benefit, adhere to the principle of mutual benefit, support each other's development and work together to achieve common prosperity.

Li noted that the continuous and in-depth development of the China-Italy comprehensive strategic partnership will create more stable expectations for economic and trade cooperation for the two sides and bring broader opportunities.

China is advancing Chinese modernization on all fronts through high-quality development, and the third plenary session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China made systematic arrangements for further deepening reform and promoting Chinese modernization, Li said.

This will not only promote the rapid growth of China's economy but also promote economic optimization and upgrading, unleash huge development potential and provide broad space for cooperation between enterprises of the two countries, he added.

Li called on China and Italy to tap new opportunities for cooperation in line with the general trend and deepen mutually beneficial cooperation.

"We should support enterprises of both sides in tapping the potential of cooperation in smart manufacturing, new energy, biomedicine and other fields, and continue to expand and deepen cooperation," Li said.

He emphasized that China will open its door even wider to companies from Italy and other countries, create a transparent, stable and predictable institutional environment, further relax market access, guarantee national treatment for foreign companies, and provide more support and convenience for foreign companies to invest and do business in China.

It is hoped that Chinese and Italian entrepreneurs will seize the opportunity and move forward side by side to achieve greater development for their own enterprises, make the "cake of common interests of the two countries bigger" and promote friendly and cooperative relations between the two countries, Li said.

Meloni said Italy and China should strengthen comprehensive strategic partnership, give full play to complementary advantages and strengthen economic and trade cooperation.

She added that Italy is willing to expand practical cooperation with China on economy, trade, investment and artificial intelligence on the basis of mutual respect and trust, fairness and mutual benefit, innovate cooperation models, enhance the competitiveness of enterprises and jointly address global challenges.

It is hoped that the economic and trade cooperation between Italy and China will produce more results and add new impetus to the development of bilateral relations, Meloni said.

More than 150 entrepreneurs from China and Italy attended the event.