International affairs
The Chamber of Commerce of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg in collaboration with the Ministry of the Economy and the Luxembourg Trade and Investment Office in Tel Aviv, organised a multi-sectoral trade mission to Israel, from the 24th to the 28th of October 2015.
Since the great success of the mission in 2012, Israel has further developed its status as world leader in a number of innovative sectors that are also key-sectors of the Luxembourg economy namely ICT, life sciences, logistics, automotive components and fintech. Israel is one of the most resilient and technologically-advanced market economies in the world. Its skilled workforce and concentration of venture capital allow the country to lead in innovative industries such as high-tech, cleantech, and life sciences. Several Israeli companies are already using Luxembourg as an access point into European and world markets.
As part of this trade mission to Israel, a seminar, dedicated to presenting the Luxembourg economy, its opportunities and its innovations – including a session more focused on smart cities and cyber-security took place on October 25 in Tel Aviv. Some 40 Israeli companies came to assess the potential of Luxembourg for their business. In addition, they got to know how the City of Luxembourg combines state-of-the-art technologies to make daily life easier for citizens (excellent infrastructure, free wifi network, mobility monitoring, e-government, quality of water, air control). According to the Manufactures’ Association of Israel, cyber-security is paramount and has become a bigger export earner than arms. The number of Israeli cyber-security companies has doubled over the past five years to 300. Demand for their products has boomed, in 2014 Israeli companies sold around 6 billion USD of internet-security software, about a tenth of the worldwide sales. The European Union is still a major partner and cooperation for the global market is being encouraged.
Other events included the conference Go4Israel addressing central topics as funds raising and establishing strategic alliances between corporate, entrepreneurs and investors from around the world as well as the conference under the topic “Cyber-security and Personal Data Protection: shaping an appropriate regulatory environment” bringing together EU countries ambassadors, commercial counsellors of Israel-EU member states bi-national chambers of commerce and members of the Israel-EU Chamber of Commerce with the Luxembourg delegation.
Another highlight of the mission was the visit of Amdocs. Amdocs is a provider of software and services to more than 250 communications, media and entertainment service providers in more than 90 countries, employing 25 000 people. It offers optimisation for multiple lines of business, including wireless, broadband, cable and satellite services. The company also offers mobile financial services to both service providers and financial institutions. Amdocs is currently working with Post Luxembourg.
Participating companies from Luxembourg had also tailor-made business meetings with local companies and institutions. The Luxembourg delegation was impressed by the high level of creativity and innovation of the Israeli economy. The Israeli incubator system has accompanied more than 5,000 startups over the last 20 years, 2000 of them alone in the field of life sciences. The frantic pace of Israeli science is also reflected in the fact that in the recently published CWTS study at Leiden University, the Weizmann Institute of Science is ranked 10th, the first institute outside the US. For the Luxembourg Institute of Health (LIH), the discussed collaborations in the field of immunology and bioinformatics are very interesting. The European Reference Centre of the World Health Organization for measles and rubella at LIH has a very close relationship with the corresponding laboratory at the Sheba Medical Center. These examples show that not only economic relations but also the scientific links between Luxembourg and Israel continue to deepen.