Fili’s world

Taiwan is taking an interest in Israeli business. There’s little doubt that Israel is increasing investments in both China and Taiwan on a massive scale. The Chinese official delegation to visit Israel’s Prime Minister conference showed that Israeli-Chinese business isn’t only one way. Now, Taiwan’s pushing forward on Israeli business potential with a special conference held in National Taiwan University dealing entirely with business investments in Israel to mark a special occasion of reaching 1 billion US dollars in bilateral trade.

Here’s from the Taipei Times’ “Israel investment conference held today” :

The Ministry of Economic Affairs has scheduled a symposium today on investment and technological cooperation with Israel, after bilateral trade between the two countries exceeded US$1 billion last year for the first time, a ministry spokesman said on Sunday.

The symposium will be held at National Taiwan University’s international conference center and aims to help Taiwanese businesses gain a better understanding of Israel and seek collaboration and commercial opportunities in the Middle Eastern country, the spokesman said.

In the symposium, Israeli officials as well as Taiwanese entrepreneurs and business experts who have conducted business with Israel will be invited to participate in discussion on Israel’s investment climate, the development of its high-tech industry and key characteristics of its culture and trade, the spokesman said.

He added that Israel has gained the reputation of a second “Silicon Valley,” with 100 companies listed on NASDAQ and that it has become an international hub for technological cooperation and multinational investment.

Statistics for last year show that bilateral trade between Taiwan and Israel hit a new high of US$1.03 billion, a 5.1 percent growth over the previous year. Taiwan’s total exports to Israel accounted for US$37.96 million, with total imports from Israel reaching US$65.23 million, thus marking a US$27.27 million trade surplus in Israel’s favor.

Earlier this year, Israel and Taiwan signed a technological cooperation pact. What kind of technology? Here’s from Taipei Times’ ”First technological cooperation pact signed with Israel“ :

They stressed in particular its creative use of defense technology in the medical industry to improve equipment and products and foster innovation.

Lin Kwang-lung (林光隆), the director-general of the council’s Department of International Cooperation, said that key areas for cooperation would be nanotechnology and biotechnology.

“Israel is strong in many areas such as national defense technology and biotechnology. Furthermore, they do not have many natural resources, so all they have today they have developed from zero,” he said.

Taiwan has been discussing an FTA with Israel for a while now, with ups and downs usually in connection to China.