Dev ChinnappaGoogle and Alphabet CEO, Sundar Pichai has announced Google’s commitment of $900 Million over a period of 5 years as part of an effort to accelerate Italy’s economic recovery.
Google is proud to be a partner in Italy's economic recovery. We're investing more than $900M over 5 years to help transform Italian businesses large and small, including the launch of two @GoogleCloud regions in partnership with @TIM_Official. https://t.co/DiVB6sqqNB
— Sundar Pichai (@sundarpichai) July 9, 2020
Dubbed Italia in Digitale, the program will put funds towards Italy’s “digital transformation” and supporting small and large scale businesses. The plan aims to offer training, partnership opportunities and the necessary tools to support enterprises as well as job seekers.
While past initiatives, namely, Cescere in Digitale and Google Digital Training, have worked towards similar goals, the new program becomes a much-needed helping hand in light of recent events. Being one of the countries devastatingly ravaged by the global pandemic, with tourism, retail and food services badly hit, Italy’s economy is in the process of rebuilding. To this end, Google strives to reach more than 700,000 small and medium businesses, bringing the total benefited to 1 million by 2021.
Google.org has additionally 1 Million Euros to the Chamber of Commerce (Unioncamere) towards the training and development of “underserved small and medium businesses”.