The “Lab Innova for Tunisia 2021” initiative is launching actions to develop innovative collaboration projects between Italy and Tunisia to build a joint ecosystem for startups, ANSAMed reported.
Funded with the Extraordinary Plan of Made in Italy, the project is managed by ICE – the Agency for the promotion abroad and the internationalization of Italian companies – in cooperation with the Italian embassy in Tunis and in partnership with local counterparts Smart Tunisia, Smart Capital, Smart Tunisian Technoparks, Pôle de Competitivité de Sousse and Pôle de Sidi Thabet.
The project – ICE in Tunis said in a statement – is part of an integrated development path for 20 Tunisian startups working in the technological innovation of products and services that can lead to partnerships in areas of common interest like Robotics, Agritech & Smart farming, MedTech and ICT (Blockchain, Cybersecurity and Artificial Intelligence).
In Africa, the format of Lab Innova has already been implemented in Ethiopia, Angola, Mozambique and Uganda, in general for small and medium-sized companies and with a focus on Agritech.
For the first time, considering Tunisia’s unique situation as a country with a better structured productive scenario, the project will focus more on startups and more strategic sectors.
Tunisia has recently approved measures to favor startups to produce innovation and launch new talents.
These measures have led to the Startup Act 2018, which constituted the legal framework for Tunisian startups, and subsequently for financial tools to help startups through various phases of development, like the program Fond des Fonds.
Although the ecosystem of Tunisian startups is still at the beginning, several examples of excellence make Tunisia one of the most innovative countries in Africa.
A total of 20 startups among those selected and certified will have access to the specialized training.
“The spirit of the project – Donatella Iaricci, the director of ICE – Agency in Tunis was quoted as saying by the same source – will be to create the conditions of development according to uniform models to consolidate commercial and industrial collaboration relations between Italy and Tunisia, especially in highly technological sectors”.
