Cisco to invest 100 million dollars in Italy in 3 years

(AGI) Rome, Jan 19 - Multinational IT company Cisco will invest 100 million dollars in Italy over the next three years in order to accelerate the country's digitisation process. The announcement was made after a meeting on Monday between Italian Prime Minister, Matteo Renzi, Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins and the CEO of Cisco Italy, Agostino Santoni. The agreement is in line with the growing commitment by the Italian government to favour the digitisation process through a dual approach: enhancing digital skills and the awareness of the opportunities offered by digital systems; and supporting the community of Italy's innovative start-ups. More specifically, Cisco has signed an agreement with the Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research providing for training activities for teachers and students through courses at the Cisco Network Academy, enabling them to acquire the new digital skills required by the market and so have access to more job opportunities. To this end, Cisco will further extend its Networking Academy Programme, first developed to teach the skills for success in an increasingly interconnected world, through modules focused on 4.0 Industry technology and cybersecurity. Cisco's first step in developing the ecosystem for Italian enterprises will be to evaluate investment opportunities with Invitalia Ventures. This survey will enable Cisco to back the development of the country's best start-ups and help boost Italy's technological potential. These investments will promote Research and Development initiatives, collaborating with Italian universities in digitising the two Italian sectors of excellence: manufacturing and agrofood. The company will also continue to invest in research activities in Italy through Cisco Photonics in Vimercate (Monza and Brianza), which spearheads the worldwide development of Cisco optical networking technologies in collaboration with Italian university research centres. New cooperation opportunities are being pursued with universities in the field of cybersecurity training and research. Lastly, Cisco intends to increase its commitment to support Italian manufacturing and agrofood companies in implementing the digitisation process, speeding up the adoption of technological solutions capable of enhancing their competitiveness and affirming the primacy of the quality and innovation of Made in Italy products. "I very much admire Prime Minister Renzi for the enthusiasm with which he pursues the goal of exploiting technology in order to deeply transform Italy; it is an honour to collaborate with him," said Cisco CEO, Chuck Robbins. . .