Israel Active

Business contacts between the UK and Israel are soaring, stimulated by Brexit issues and the current relative low value of Sterling. Recent activity includes the Innovate Israel 2017 conference in London and the UK Israel Business chamber of commerce’s largest delegation to Israel.

Incoming tourism broke records on 7th Nov, when Wizz Air Flight No. 3257 landed in Israel, carrying Romanian tourist Ioana Isac, the 3 millionth tourist to arrive in Israel this year. Ioana and her partner were treated to a dream vacation courtesy of the Israeli Tourism Ministry.

Fluence Corporation (merger of Israel’s Emefcy and RWL Water) is to supply three NIROBOX reverse-osmosis seawater desalination units for the French island of Mayotte, in the Indian Ocean. It follows the company’s recent award of a NIROBOX plant in South Africa.

Hungarian low-cost airline Wizz Air has announced that, from March 25, 2018, it will operate daily flights on the Tel Aviv to London Luton route, instead of the four flights a week it currently offers. Wizz is adding four Airbus A320 aircraft to its fleet based at Luton Airport.

Israel’s SuperCom has won an 8-year contract to build and operate a new central personalization system for electronic passports and national ID cards in Iceland.

Samsung Electronics has launched its International Cyber Security Smart Mobility Analysis and Research Test (SMART) Range in Israel. Its aim is to protect autonomous vehicles, devices and roadways from dangerous intrusions.

I reported previously (Nov 2016) that Daimler (owner of Mercedes Benz) planned to launch an Israeli R&D center. It is now open and aims to unify the four mega trends impacting the automobile industry: connectivity, autonomous vehicles, ride-sharing and electro-mobility.

Jerusalem Mayor Barkat is initiating the construction of a high-tech, residential, academic and recreational hub above the Begin Road in central Jerusalem. The high-tech and biotech village of 70,000 sqm will contain 1,830 residents including 250 sheltered housing units.

Israel’s prestigious College of Law and Business in Ramat Gan has launched a merit-based scholarship program for the October 2018 class. It offers to waive from 20% - 50% of tuition fees for English-speaking high-school applicants, based on their academic record.

15 Israeli companies from the life sciences and information communications technology (ICT) sectors took part in a roadshow to China. The delegation, organized by the Israel Innovation Authority together with the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology, visited Changzhou, Shanghai and Beijing.