The upcoming visit to Italy by Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao will surely further enhance Sino-Italian relations, Chinese Ambassador to Italy Ding Wei told Xinhua in a recent interview.

Wen's two-day visit, starting Wednesday, comes as China and Italy are marking the 40th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries, Ding said.

During the visit, he said, Wen is expected to unveil the Chinese Cultural Year in Italy.

China and Italy are both ancient civilizations with splendid culture, and exchanges and contacts between the two peoples can be traced back for a long history, Ding said.

Considerable progress has been made in bilateral ties since China and Italy established diplomatic relations on Nov. 6, 1970, he said.

In 1970s, the ambassador said, there were on average less than 1,000 visitors between the two countries and bilateral trade was only 120 million U.S. dollars. Currently, there are around 400,000 Chinese citizens visiting Italy annually and bilateral trade has grown to nearly 40 billion dollars.

"As a result of our joint efforts, the daily bilateral trade volume between China and Italy today is larger than the combined trade volume for the entire year of 1970," Ding said.

In May 2004 when Wen paid an official visit to Italy, the two countries set up a comprehensive strategic partnership, ushering in a new era of bilateral friendly cooperation in various fields.

Currently there is a good momentum in the development of bilateral ties, Ding said recalling a series of high-level political exchanges.

In October 2008, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi went to Beijing to meet Chinese leaders when he attended the seventh Asia-Europe summit.

Last year, Chinese President Hu Jintao and Wu Bangguo, chairman of the National People's Congress Standing Committee, visited Italy, to promote the comprehensive development of bilateral relations.

In June this year, He Guoqiang, member of the Standing Committee of the Chines Communist Party's Central Committee Political Bureau, visited Italy.

Now, leaders from both countries will be celebrating the 40th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations, as well as the Italian-Chinese Culture Year, Ding said, adding that this will give new impetus to the growth of bilateral relations.

He said both China and Italy have overcome the international financial crisis and mutual cooperation has shown a strong upward trend.

According to Ding, in the first five months of 2010, bilateral trade reached 15.96 billion dollars, an increase of 34.3 percent year-on-year; 80 new Italian business projects were set up in China with 350 million dollars of contracted investment, of which around 140 million dollars have been invested; Chinese direct investments in Italy increased by 1.1 million dollars.

Chinese enterprises in Italy are expanding rapidly and some of them are gradually moving into the high-tech fields, he said.

On the international arena, Ding said, China and Italy hold similar views on some issues, and the two sides have in a number of important multilateral international organizations maintained communications and cooperation.

China attaches great importance to developing friendly relations and cooperation with Italy and is confident in the future development of bilateral relations, he stated.