Israel Active

This brief summary shows how the Chinese discovered the start- up nation Israel and started to invest billions of dollars in Israeli technology. From agro-tech, medical, chemicals, tourism, solar energy and education to the massive project to turn Eilat into an alternative to the Suez Canal.

In a ceremony in Tel Aviv Israel’s Economics Minister Naftali Bennett presented Ormat Technologies with Israel’s award for top exporter for 2013. Ormat’s environmental-friendly Energy Converter power generation unit converts geothermal heat into electricity.

Israel will become an enhanced innovation nation with the establishment of a national cyber-park in Beer Sheva, in the Negev, that will be called Cyber Spark. The new initiative brings together multinational companies, investors, start-up companies, academic research, and even a high school.

(Thanks to Nevet – www.broaderview.org The US Navy will buy $2 million of water filters from Israel’s Amiad. The filters will be installed in all new ships built at the Navy’s Virginia shipyards including the massive new USS John F Kennedy aircraft carrier currently being assembled.

Israel’s ClickSoftware gives companies the ability to schedule employees to handle crises as well as normal activities. It is winning contracts for dealing with storms and “unscheduled” emergencies, like major fires, earthquakes, gas leaks, forest fires, and burst water mains.

The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Bar Ilan University and Israel’s Technion Institute have joined the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya in offering budding English-speaking entrepreneurs the opportunity to acquire their MBA skills in the Start-up Nation.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was in selling mode at the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland. “We produce more conceptual products per capita than any other nation in the world. “We have no choice – to survive we had to innovate.”

The PM then spoke at Israel’s first-ever cyber-technology show, Cybertech 2014. “Hackers are killing the Internet, and Israel is one of the few players that can save it” he said. Bloomberg has also picked up on this fact, noting that Israel now has over 200 computer security companies.

Two US giants, Lockheed Martin and EMC are teaming up to establish a joint cyber security center, employing local workers in Beersheva. It is Lockheed Martin’s first Israeli venture and supports its tender to build the IDF campus in the Negev. EMC also has a center in Herzliya.

IBM Corporation is to invest several million dollars establishing a cyber center of excellence in Beersheva, in collaboration with Ben Gurion University.