Israel Active

(Thanks to Charlie) “Tavlinim” (Hebrew for “spices”) is a group of women in Netivot who formed a cooperative in order to cater at events on a commercial basis. The group is supported by Philadelphia’s Partnership2Gether. Most of the women originated from Morocco, Tunisia and Ethiopia.

CNN records the growing success of Israeli hi-tech start-ups that has attracted the interest of major global giants.

Israel’s foreign exchange reserves at the end of October 2013 stood at a record $80,571 million, an increase of $669 million from their level at the end of September. $320 million were purchased to prevent Israel’s natural gas production from strengthening the Shekel’s exchange rate.

Israel-based start-up Mobli has just received a strategic investment from America Movil, owned by Mexico’s Carlos Slim. The goal is to bring Mobli's photo, video sharing platform to millions of America Movil’s customers in Latin America.

(Thanks to Israel21c) Heads of start-ups in 12 European, Asian and South American countries won competitions to visit the entrepreneurial ecosystem of Tel Aviv.

A delegation led by the (South) Korean ambassador to Israel, Kim Il-soo, participated in the first-ever Korea-Israel Creative Economy Forum. Kim said that Israel was much admired in his country. Annual trade is $2.5 billion. Samsung’s only foreign R&D is in Israel.

For those that think there are no big Israeli companies, Israel’s Formula Systems controls three Israel companies – Matrix IT, Magic Software and Sapiens International. Together they employ thousands of IT experts and sell products and services in hundreds of countries. They are very profitable – and growing.

Israel’s agriculture Minister Yair Shamir and Vietnamese government officials agreed to establish a joint agriculture research and development fund, and to complete a free-trade accord. Israeli exports to Vietnam last year jumped by 120% to $747 million.

(Thanks to Atid-EDI) Students at Abertay University are now enjoying 10 times more bandwidth than they had a year ago, now that the institution has installed the EtherHaul millimeter wave wireless system from Israel’s Siklu, the leader in E-band millimeter wave systems. Siklu’s products have also been installed in Kent, England to provide broadband to rural communities.

US Defense giant Lockheed-Martin plans to open a major subsidiary in Israel that will employ hundreds of people. In addition to building a branch for IT and cyber protection, it will seek to expand cooperation with Israeli defense companies and to work in the domestic security market