Jakarta (VNA) - ASEAN and Italy renewed their commitmentto further strengthen cooperation at the third meeting of the ASEAN-Italy DevelopmentPartnership Cooperation Committee held recently at the ASEAN Secretariatin Jakarta.

The meeting highlighted theprogress made in the ASEAN-Italy cooperation, particularly in the priority areasoutlined in the ASEAN-Italy Development Partnership: Practical CooperationAreas (PCA) for 2022-2026, and hoped that the PCA will further substantiatecooperation with a focus on areas where both sides have expertise and mutualinterests.

Since Italy was conferred the DevelopmentPartner of ASEAN status in September 2020, both sides have made a number ofconcerted efforts to institutionalise and substantiate the partnership. Suchefforts include the identification and development of tangible cooperationprojects in various sectors including cultural heritage, cybersecurity,agriculture mechanisation, sustainable coastal and maritime development,environment protection, geothermal energy, fishing gear recycling, agriculturalmechanisation, as well as space and smart technology. In 2022, Italy hasprovided capacity-building programmes in various areas of cooperationincluding cybercrime, sustainable coastal and maritime development, and the lawof the sea/anti-piracy.

Bothsides also deliberated on other potential areas for cooperation which includemaritime security, transnational crimes, cybersecurity, counterterrorism,digital economy, renewable energy, green infrastructure, green growth, spacetechnology, sustainable tourism, blue economy, food security, smart andsustainable agriculture, climate action, people-to-people exchange, anddisaster management./.