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Israel committed to hi-tech industry: PM

Xinhua, June 10, 2015 Adjust font size:

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Tuesday met with Google chief Eric Schmidt in Jerusalem, and told him Israel is committed to providing a favorable climate for the hi-tech sector.

"Developing the industry was a national challenge of the highest priority in the Israeli economy," Netanyahu said, according to a statement released by the Prime Minister's office.

Noting Israel's efforts to diversify markets it has trade relations with in the tech field, Netanyahu vowed Israel will "continue to work on attracting investments from multinational companies in Israel."

Israel offers grants and tax benefits to international companies to attract foreign investments. According to this policy the giant U.S. chip-maker, Intel, and the Israeli government, finalized an agreement to upgrade a plant in the south with a 5.8 U.S. billion dollars investment, in return for a government grant of 300 million dollars and tax breaks last year.

Schmidt, Google's executive chairman, praised Israeli "leadership in technology in general, and in the cyber field in particular."

Highlighting the creativity and entrepreneurship of the Israeli industry, Schmidt said that Israel is second only to Silicon Valley in terms of the number of start-ups, with over 6,000 start-ups established in Israel over the last decade.

Schmidt, whose company inaugurated a research and development center in Israel in 2007, pledged that "Google's commitment to invest in Israel will persist," he said.

Israel fosters several encouraging frameworks for hi-tech entrepreneurship, including "incubators" for start-up companies, tax exemptions for venture capital investments, and government-subsidized research and development centers in peripheral regions of southern and northern Israel. Enditem