Israel Active

At the Asian Financial Forum 2019 in Hong Kong, Israeli entrepreneur Jon Medved said that tiny Israel develops technology solutions and China provides for a massive scale-up of operations. An example is Israeli ag-tech, which increases food production for everyone.

Israel’s foreign exchange reserves at the end of Jan 2019 climbed to a new record of $118.151 billion, up $2.872 billion from the end of Dec 2018,

Following a record number of visitors in 2018, Israel’s popularity as a tourist destination continues. 285,000 tourists entered Israel in January 2019 - an 11% increase on January 2018, and a 35% increase on January 2017.

I reported previously on the 4 Israeli finalists in the UN’s World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) competition. And the winner was … Israel’s Refundit which beat 2771 companies from 132 countries with its system to simplify the VAT refund process.

I reported previously on Israel’s Orri Jaffa long-life, late season, easy-peeler mandarins. They are now exported to 45 countries – mostly in Europe. But this season the North American market is set to soar, with a 70% growth predicted.

I reported previously on the Novokid lice treatment from Israel’s TechCare. Now China-Israel Biological Technology (CIB) is partnering TechCare to jointly develop a range of products, based on Novomic’s technology, for China, Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan.

I reported previously that UK energy company Centrica had invested millions of dollars in Israel’s Driivz and its electric vehicle charging system. Centrica has now increased this funding and set up Centrica Mobility Ventures, dedicated to electric vehicle technologies.

I’ve reported previously on Israel’s EyeSight and its driver monitoring systems.  EyeSight has just won an Excellence award for promoting trade relations between Israel and Japan in the field of computer vision and AI. It has also partnered with Samsung.

I reported previously that Samsung and Apple had invested in the dual lens smartphone camera technology of Israeli startup Corephotonics. It looks like Samsung were so impressed that they bought the company, in a deal worth $155 million.

I reported previously when Amazon Web Services designated Israel’s CTERA Networks to be a Storage Competency partner. Now Cisco will offer CTERA’s cloud storage, file sharing, and data protection services as an add-on to Cisco routers sold to global enterprise customers.