Israel Active

Israel and the USA signed a mutual recognition agreement that will ease burdens on US and Israeli companies seeking to export telecommunications products to each other. E.g. product tests performed in one country will satisfy the regulations of the other. This should lower prices and boost exports.

The European Parliament has approved the Agreement on Conformity Assessment and Acceptance of Industrial Products with Israel. Technical trade barriers will now be removed, bringing thousands of Israel’s life-saving medications to the continent.

The US FDA has cleared Israel’s Syneron Medical to market its home-use hair removal system to customers “over the counter”. Retailers are expected to sell the systems, with Syneron’s patented Intense Pulse Light (IPL) and Radio Frequency (RF) energy technology, to consumers early in 2013.

Israeli inventor Izhar Gafni said that after much trial and error, his latest prototype has now proven itself and mass production will begin in a few months at Ahituv, a farming village near Hadera.

The Environmental Protection Ministry will award NIS 160 million to local authorities joining the office’s waste separation “recycling revolution.” The money will allow local councils to buy collection trucks for separated garbage.

Despite high prices, Palestinian Arabs in Gaza have been rushing to buy Apple’s new smartphone even before they are available to Israelis. "There are always some people prepared to pay whatever they must just to have the latest thing," a Gaza dealer said. Israelis have to wait until December.

Israel’s Frutarom is to build a new plant in the Lower Galilee for the production of natural products and plant extracts and to serve as an R&D center for the production of taste and health products. The Israeli government has given the plant approved enterprise status and eligibility for tax benefits.

Israel’s Surpass Medical develops stents to treat brain aneurysms. US medical device manufacturer Stryker Corporation has just acquired it for $135 million. Surpass's key product, the NeuroEndoGraft family of flow diverters, is designed to redirect blood flow away from an aneurysm.

(Thanks to IATI) “The technology economy that has emerged in Israel is one of the most significant happenings in the world today.” Kevin Ducoff of VentureBeat writes about the Israeli companies that are changing the way we use technology to interact and access information. They include Waze, Codename One, Kaltura, Mobli and StartApp.