MILAN, Italy -- Dagong Europe, the branch of China-based Dagong Global Credit Rating Co Ltd in Europe, was bringing new voice in the international credit rating business, the branch's vice chairman said Friday.

China was an "exporter of capitals" and will be an increasingly important investor in the world, said Vice Chairman of Dagong Europe Lorenzo Stanca when speaking at an annual conference on China held by Milan-based ISPI institute of international politics.

Establishing Dagong Europe in Italy as the first Asian rating company operating in the European Union (EU) was an "ambitious and very considerable" project, Stanca highlighted.

He said Dagong Europe was not competing directly with the Big Three. "With our background and with the fact that also ESMA, the European regulator, is promoting for more competition in the credit rating business, we should be able to have our place in the market," he said.

The vice chairman explained that Dagong Europe's mission is to assist Chinese investors, who are used to a very different financial and cultural environment, to better understand the European market.

A Sino-Italian joint venture between Dagong Global Credit Rating and Mandarin Capital Partners, a private equity fund by institutional investors, Dagong Europe operates under and is compliant to the European framework regulated by ESMA, Stanca introduced.

"It is completely independent from our main shareholder, Dagong Global Credit Rating in China, and this is how we are perceived in the market," he added.