Founded in Rome in 2012
EMCC is an independent, non-profit organization founded in 2012, headquartered in Milan, with offices in Beijing and Cairo. It operates across the Eurasian continent and the Mediterranean region, working with governments, public agencies, business associations, and private companies to identify, design, and support development projects with measurable economic and social impact.
The Council was established in Rome in 2012 as the Italian Chinese Friendship Association. Over the following decade its work extended from cultural exchange to industrial and institutional cooperation, and its geographic scope widened from China to Central Asia, the Mediterranean and North Africa. On 12 November 2025 an Extraordinary General Assembly adopted a new name and an updated Statute, and formally established the Council’s regional offices in China and Egypt.
Two organizations, two roles
EMCC and Eurasia Cooperation have grown alongside each other, and they do different things.
EMCC works at institutional level.
Political mapping, relations with governments and public agencies, agreements between institutions, and the long preliminary work that makes a development project possible before it becomes a project.
Eurasia Cooperation works on execution.
It finds the manufacturer, negotiates the supply, and follows the equipment to the ground — with after-sales service, spare parts and operator training.
The two are separate organizations, with separate governance. What they share is a network built over more than a decade, and the conviction that institutional understanding and commercial delivery are both necessary, and that neither works well without the other.
Selected institutional milestones
2013 — Launch event at the Temple of Hadrian, Rome, in the presence of Li Jianping, Vice-President of CPAFFC, and high-level Italian institutional representatives.
2015 — Expo Milano: a six-month programme of 42 cultural events across Milan and Venice, the largest cultural programme organized by a non-governmental entity within the Expo.
2019 — Strategic agreement with the Silk Road Planning Research Center of the CPPCC, China’s highest political consultative body. Memorandum of understanding with Sinotrans Group for the southern route of the China-Europe Railway Express.
2023 — Irene Maria Pivetti received the Silk Road Friendship Ambassador Award, presented by Yang Chuantang, former Vice-Chairman of the CPPCC National Committee, at the Great Hall of the People, Beijing.
2024 — Strategic cooperation agreement with YINGKE, the largest law firm in China. Memorandum of understanding with the Government of Hainan Province, including the Hainan Free Trade Port.
2025 — Opening of the Cairo office, supporting industrial parks, agricultural projects and technology transfer in the year of the 70th anniversary of Egypt-China diplomatic relations.
Legal status
Eurasia-Med Cooperation Council is registered as a non-profit association under Italian law, tax code 97833290584. Its registered office is in Rome; its operational headquarters is in Milan. The Council is chaired by Irene Maria Pivetti and governed by a General Assembly, a Board of Directors and a President, supported by a Scientific and Strategic Advisory Board.
Offices
Milan
Operational Headquarters
Via Vittor Pisani, 10
20124 Milan, Italy
Beijing
Asia Office
509 Tower W3, Oriental Plaza
1 East Chang’An Avenue, Beijing
Cairo
Southern Mediterranean Office
39 Al Dokki Street, Dokki
Giza 12611, Cairo, Egypt