Rio de Janeiro, Jul 14 (IANS): Apple Developer Academies will play an important role in supporting the Malala Fund's mission to provide education opportunities to girls across the globe, Nobel peace laureate Malala Yousafzai has said, referring to deepening of partnerships between the tech giant and the fund.

Meeting the young developers at the Apple Developer Academy here on Friday, Malala said the fund will gain access to new tools to support its mission of free, safe, quality education by tapping into Apple's network of student developers.

"The students in Apple's Developer Academy programme share my passion for improving the world around us, and I am eager to see their innovative ideas to help girls in Brazil and across the globe," Malala said.

The Nobel peace laureate was speaking on the occasion of Apple launching on Friday a new collaboration between its 10 Apple Developer Academies in Brazil and Malala Fund to advance girls' education opportunities.

"My hope is that every girl, from Rio to Riyadh, can be free to choose her own future," she said.

In January this year, Apple entered into a partnership with the Malala Fund to support new programmes in India and Latin America, with the initial goal of extending secondary education opportunities to more than 100,000 girls.

"We share Malala's goal of getting more girls into quality education and are thrilled to be deepening our partnership with Malala Fund by mobilising thousands of Apple Developer Academy students and alumni across Brazil," Apple's CEO Tim Cook said in a statement.

"Apple has been committed to education since day one, and we can't wait to see what our creative student developers come up with to help Malala Fund make a difference for girls around the world," Cook added.