by Sagi Ashkevitz

The IEI (Israel Export Institute) is the main meeting place between Israeli and foreign business people for international trade, joint ventures and business opportunities. We all know that we are working in one global market and the name of the game is cooperation. Therefore the IEI does not deal only with Israel's exports but is a clearing house for investments, cooperation and all aspects of international trade.

One of our main tasks is helping our young companies and start-ups to work in the global market in a framework of joint ventures and business cooperation.

The IEI's Start-Up Center functions as the main supportive body for Israeli Start-Up companies. Foreign strategic or financial investors may receive assistance from this center in exploring the possibility of investment or cooperation with Israeli Start-Up companies, at no charge. The need for this assistance is greater today, due to the global economic crisis that affects every country, including Israel. Out assistance is much more essential, and sometimes even critical, because of the lack of new investors and the reluctance of the venture capital funds to take new risks.

Our services are designed and fully adjusted to the present situation. We are charged with assisting start-up companies; we stand by them and help them as much as we can.

The Center has a database of thousands of hi-tech companies of which over 1500 are Start-Up companies. The database allows the user to search through the list according to technological segmentation (software, electronics, communications, etc.), stages of development and investment stages.

The Center provides tailor-made services to potential investors, such as analysis and location of relevant companies for a specific investor, scheduling meetings with start-up companies, information on the participation of Israeli start-up companies in future events, hosting and organizing meetings with foreign corporation on Israel and more.

The Center offers a range of services to Israeli start-up companies: matching companies with private investors overseas, assistance in gaining exposure to overseas markets, training and management, guidance and business counseling.

The IEI organized 20 cooperation conferences between Israeli start-up companies and investors in Europe, the USA, and Asia last year.
A similar number of cooperation meetings were held in Israel and included some 2000 one-on-one business meetings. In 2001, due to the security situation, most of these meetings took place abroad. We are planning more such activities outside Israel for the year 2002.

The Israel Export Institute is the primary organization facilitating trade ties, joint ventures, and strategic alliances between overseas businesses and Israeli companies. It provides comprehensive, professional trade information, advice, contacts and promotional activities to Israeli companies, and complementary services to businesspeople, commercial and trade groups, and trade delegations from abroad.

The Israel Export Institute is a non-profit organization, founded in 1958 as a "joint venture" between the Israeli government and the private sector, to promote Israel's exports. The IEI today comprises 2,700 member companies representing more than 90 percent of Israel's manufacturing exports, excluding defense and diamond exports.

Throughout its 51 years of existence, Israel's economy was transformed from being inward-oriented, with a small amount of exports, mainly citrus and agricultural products, to a thriving export-oriented economy, based to a large extent on hi-tech and sophistication. Israel is today to a large extent "the second Silicon Valley" or 'Wadi". It surely ranks as one of the top ten most important Hi-Tech centers around the world. It remains so, even during these turbulent times, and the Hi-Tech Industry is in the forefront of the transformation of Israeli Industry in general, and its exporting branch in particular.

Although Israel is now facing a transitional recession, connected mainly with financial and industrial crisis abroad, we are sure that in the very near future there will be a resumption of the high rate of growth engineered to a large extent by the hi-tech and exports industries. While in the past, the building industries were the base for our high-rate of growth and the force that took us out of periods of recession, nowadays, for the first time in our economic history, the hi-tech and science based industries are the main engine of recovery and growth. Especially at this troubled time, Israeli Industry could contribute a lot in the fields of security services, safety and security hardware, software and components.

It is not only the big industrial conglomerates that will bring about this remarkable recovery. It is the investment in R&D and the many thousands of start-up companies that contributed a large part of our industrial export growth in the last decade, almost 40% of it, and will continue to do it in the future.

The Israel Export Institute is proud to be responsible in part for this success story. Israel has today an abundance of ideas, nourished by many young, energetic and resourceful personnel. With the right kind of investment, management and marketing, we can continue our Hi-Tech revolution.

The Israel Export Institute works hard in order to bring together research, investment and marketing tools. Our most important mission today is to help new exporters in their first steps in the international market, helping them in building the infrastructure and the necessary tools to survive in this global, open, and very competitive marketplace. At the same time, we help the existing exporters to continue their work, in spite of all difficulties, and to be prepared for the new challenges facing us when the storm is over.

The IEI works with similar Trade Promotion Organizations around the world, as well as our vast network of Bi-National Chambers of Commerce, to assist foreign companies to do business with Israeli companies.

For Further Information, contact the Israel Export Institute:
Tel: 972-3-5142850; Fax: 972-3-5162881
Websites: www.export.gov.il; www.startup.export.gov.il

Mr. Sagi Ashkevitz, the executive for startup companies at IEI, works with approximately 1400 startups in all the various sectors - Telecom, IT, Biotech, Medical Devices, Software, Safety and Security, Aviation, Electronics, etc. Contact details for Sagi: Tel: 972-3-5142981, Fax: 972-3-5142881, E-Mail: sagi@export.gov.il