Government efforts alone cannot ensure Europe makes the most of the opportunities offered by the Belt and Road Initiative, according to a top Italian diplomat, who has called on leaders in business and culture to play their part.

"For European countries, it's a great opportunity," says Massimo D'Alema, the former foreign minister. "With the new Silk Road, Italy must contribute."

The diplomat was in Beijing on May 21 for the official launch of Silk Road Ark, a think tank formed by the Silk Road City Alliance to elaborate and exchange ideas and projects geared toward promoting economic and cultural cooperation between Belt and Road countries.

He says the only way to achieve better cooperation through the initiative is for European countries to join together, and with China, in a mutually respectful and collaborative spirit.

"My first visit to China was in 1974," D'Alema recalls. "We were guests at the Beijing Hotel, which was the only one for foreign guests. I remember that I heard a strange sound in the early morning, which turned out to be a river of bikes in the streets, where there were no cars."

 He says he is impressed to see the changes that have happened in China, as well as the dynamic cooperative achieved by China and Europe over the past 40 years.

Giuseppe Rao, the head of Silk Road Ark and a former counselor on technology and industrial innovation to the Italian embassy in Beijing, says the think tank aims to build a community of people and enterprises with shared interests.

President Xi Jinping proposed the Belt and Road Initiative, which comprises the Silk Road Economic Belt and 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, in September 2013. The plan aims to improve connectivity between Asia, Europe and Africa, as well as boost infrastructure construction, financial cooperation and cultural exchanges.

Song Ronghua, a guest professor at China Foreign Affairs University and a researcher at the China Institute of International Studies, said Silk Road Ark is made up of scholars like himself, social activists and politicians from China, Italy, the United States, Japan and Thailand.

"China proposed the Belt and Road and it has been taking the leading role since the beginning, but to make better joint efforts, more Europeans need to participate, even at the planning stage," Song says, adding that more think tanks are need to communicate and share ideas.

In July, the Silk Road City Alliance held its inaugural Silk Road Cities Cooperation Forum in Venice, Italy. There, experts discussed the role of the Belt and Road Initiative in strengthening relations between China and Italy and other countries, with a number of agreements signed between the ports of Venice and Ningbo, in eastern China's Zhejiang province.

Rao says Silk Road Ark will hold an annual general conference at the end of each year as well as bimonthly discussions, and will host sessions among members from different countries along the Silk Road route that want to exchange ideas and boost cooperation.