Israel Active

Israel’s record for the largest ship ever to dock in the country has been achieved by the 13,092 TEU Maersk Elba container ship which docked at Haifa on Feb 2.  Haifa is now formally a member of an exclusive club of ports handling high-capacity 14,000 TEU mega ships.

Israel’s Electra Consumer Products is setting up a joint project with Israel’s TechForGood to promote technology to solve social problems. The joint initiative aims to foster startups in energy conservation, the Internet of Things and air conditioning and climate control systems.

Around 350 budding entrepreneurs on the Masa Israel Journey program attended a professional development conference at Tel Aviv’s Yitzhak Rabin Center. They got an inside look at Israel’s start-up ecosystem and learned how to build networks, CVs, and personal brands.

In 2015, Time magazine picked Jerusalem as the world’s top emerging technological hub. Corporation tax had been reduced from 25% to 9%; And the Jerusalem Development Authority’s Jnext program helped setup 110 startups in Israel’s capital in 2016 alone.

Industrial parks in the Territories are in high demand.  At Shahak, over 100 dunams have been sold to developers. At Barkan 60 companies have applied to join the existing 160. Nahal Rabah is set to open shortly, just 20 minutes from Petah Tikva.

Israel’s Tower Semiconductor had a record year with 2016 revenue of $1.25 billion, up 30% over 2015 and profit of $204 million after a loss in 2015. But this was dwarfed by Israel’s Teva whose revenue was $6.5 billion in just one quarter!

Further to previous reports, Volkswagen and Mobileye now plan to implement a new navigation standard for autonomous driving starting in 2018. Future Volkswagen models will use the camera-based map and localization technology Road Experience Management™ from Mobileye.

From July 21, Wizz Air is commencing 3 flights a week between Varna Bulgaria (coolest city on the Black Sea) and Tel Aviv (coolest city on the Mediterranean). And from Jun 24, Wizz will operate four weekly flights from London Luton to Tel Aviv.

Israel’s Emefcy is to build an innovative sewage plant to serve an area of the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa. The plant will use Emefcy’s Membrane Aerated Biofilm Reactor to generate recycled water for irrigating the neighborhood’s landscape. It is Emefcy’s second treatment plant in Ethiopia.

Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) has developed and delivered comprehensive security and protection systems, known as the ‘Integrated Underwater Harbour Defence and Surveillance System’ (IUHDSS for the Indian Navy. Its sensing arrays can detect threats from small boats, submersibles, divers etc.