During talks in Rome on Friday, Italy and Algeria agreed to prioritise bilateral cooperation on the field of technological and digital innovation, the foreign ministry said in statement.
"I am deeply convinced that our future will largely depend on the virtuous use that we will be able to make of technological innovation in the most open and collaborative way possible," the statement quoted Italy's foreign undersecretary Manlio Di Stefano as saying.
Di Stefano made the remarks at a meeting with Algeria's minister for the knowledge economy and start-ups, Yacine El-Mahdi Oualid, and its minister in charge of micro-enterprises Nassim Diafat.
“It is time to push ourselves towards new frontiers, taking advantage of the opportunity offered by new technologies," Di Stefano said during the talks, which were also attended by Italy's technological innovation and digitization minister Paola Pisano.
Recalling his visit to Algeria before the outbreak of the Covid-19 emergency, Di Stefano highlighted the already solid economic relations between Italy and Algeria.
Algeria is Italy's first commercial partner in the MENA region, Di Stefano underlined during the meeting, according to the statement.
