Israel woos Kiwi firms
Israel’s first trade commissioner to New Zealand and Australia does not like the word trade. On his first visit to New Zealand this week, Shai Zarivatch said Israel had knowledge to share, not just goods and services to sell.
He said Israel was home to a technology industry as significant as Silicon Valley, but New Zealand companies had not set up shop there to make the most of its talent pool yet. His job was to change that. Trade between Israel and New Zealand was near non-existent, Zarivatch said. But the success of his role would not be measured by larger trading figures.
His mandate was to form coinvestment and co-working links between New Zealand and Israel’s business communities.
Zarivatch wants New Zealand companies to set up research and development centres in Israel and hire its local talent.
Firms had being doing so since the 1970s. Apple, Google, Facebook, IBM, Microsoft, eBay and Yahoo all have multiple technology subsidiaries set up in Israel.
‘‘They realised the value of hiring Israeli employees,’’ he said.
‘‘It is a major technology powerhouse, it is not a cute thing. They develop the future.’’
Israel’s technology hub, Tel Aviv is booming with venture capital groups looking for new companies to fund.
The Israeli Government’s National
Innovation Authority was the largest of them all, Zarivatch said. The statefunded grants agency, Israel’s equivalent to New Zealand’s Callaghan Innovation, had a unique approach to funding new technology ideas.
It spent Israeli taxpayers’ money on the most risky ideas, but was still more profitable than any other investment group in the country, he said.
‘‘It is the driving engine behind our economy.’’