Israel Active

The Israeli-managed Tahal Group (HQ in Amsterdam) has signed a $97.5 million project to design, construct, expand and upgrade the drinking water systems in the Kumawu, Konongo and Kwahu regions of Ghana.

The company has revealed its plans to turn eBay's centre of activity in Israel into one of its only technology centres in the world. It will recruit dozens of new workers, mostly computer engineers, industrial and management engineers and information system engineers for its R&D centre in Netanya.

According to the Bloomberg “riskless return” ranking, the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange’s TA-25 Index 7.6% risk-adjusted return over the past ten years was the highest of the benchmark indexes of the top 24 developed-nations.

Several major International banks have purchased Actimize Enterprise Risk Case Manager from Israel’s NICE Systems to identify and report suspicious transactions related to money laundering and terrorist financing. The latest is the First Hawaiian Bank – part of BNP Paribas.

The Swiss banking giant has launched a Wealth Management business in Tel Aviv. UBS Israel CEO Kobi Faigenbaum said UBS identified Israel as an important market and decided to deepen its operations here. UBS ranked Israel alongside Brazil and Russia, and ahead of the Gulf states.

Close on the back of last week’s deal with Russia’s Tele2, Israel’s Ceragon has now won a substantial order from Telefonica for its wireless solutions. They will be installed in Chile, Panama and Venezuela to support Telefonica’s 25 million subscribers there.

Israel’s Micro Components Ltd (MCL) has commissioned the first Russian-based production of components for Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs). By 2015 the factory is expected to produce 70,000 panels a month (around 3% of the global market for these components), sufficient for 7million LEDs.

Kibbutz Amiad builds wastewater treatment systems and filters. Recent orders include automatic self-cleaning screen filters for a desalination plant near Perth, and pre-filtration of Liquefied Natural Gas, in Southern Queensland.

The International Monetary Fund has just completed an in-depth analysis of the Israeli economy. They were quite impressed – and gave some useful advice as to how to keep it strong.

Israel has been hosting the 18th International Mediterranean Tourism Market show in Tel Aviv.