Nine hundred million dollars of investments in Italy over 5 years to accelerate the country's digital transformation. This was the announcement made by Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google and the parent company Alphabet. The resources will be used in particular to open two Google Cloud Regions in partnership with Tim and to start up the “Italia in Digitale” initiative dedicated to local small and medium-sized enterprises.
"Google is proud to be a partner in Italy's economic recovery," said Pichai.
During the coronavirus pandemic, it emerged that the digitization of the country is a priority that can no longer be postponed. In recent months, Google has collaborated with the Ministry of Health, providing information on the pandemic through Search, Maps and Youtube, and with the Ministry of Education, making tools for distance learning available free of charge.
The Mountain View giant is now betting on "Italia in Digitale", a plan inspired by initiatives such as Crescere in Digitale and Google Digital Training and which aims to "acspeed up the country's economic recovery athrough a series of training moments, free tools and partnerships to support companies and people looking for job opportunities”, explains Google in a note. Going into details, the plan foresees that Google provides concrete help to over 700 people and small and medium-sized businesses who want to push on digitization with the aim of bringing the total number to over 1 million by the end of 2021 ″.
However, “Italia in Digitale” is not the only novelty announced by the American Hi-Tech company. As of July 9, Google.org will provide a 'grant' of 1 million euros to Unioncamere, in order to support the digital transformation of Italian small and medium-sized enterprises in difficulty. With this money, the Chambers of Commerce will offer specific training and expert assistance to businesses and workers, with particular attention to those sectors most affected by Covid-19, to help people keep their jobs or find a new one.
