Tel Aviv to host China-Israel investment summit

Tel Aviv will host INNONATION: China-Israel Investment Summit on September 24th to September 26th 2016. The event follows the success of the first China-Israel Technology, Innovation & Investment Summit, which was held in January 2016 in Beijing. The binational joint conference, which is supported by the governments of China and Israel, will take place at the David Intercontinental Hotel in Tel Aviv, in parallel to the DLD Innovation Festival, which will be held in Tel Aviv around the same dates.

The INNONATION Summit will host more than 1,000 strategic players and investors from China, together with 500 Israeli high tech companies. The summit is open for entrepreneurs and companies in various fields, primarily Smart Cities; Medical Devices; Agricultural Technology and Cleantech; Internet and Mobile; Advanced Manufacturing and several additional fields, which attract significant interest from Chinese investors.

The INNONATION Summit is a joint initiative of Israel’s Ministry of Economy and Industry, and Infinity Group, organized in response to the growing interest of Chinese companies in the Israeli economy, and the recent Chinese acquisitions of Israeli companies. Similar to the first event, the objective of the summit is to encourage collaboration between Israeli and Chinese companies in the fields of technology, innovation, and investment. As part of the collaboration between the two countries, ministers from China and Israel are due to participate, alongside representatives of Chinese government agencies - the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) and the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST).

The conference organizers note that more than 40 investors from Chinese funds have already secured their participation, including representative from the following funds: SST, CITIC, CICC, CDB and Legend Capital. Chinese companies which will send representatives to participate at the INNONATION Summit in Tel Aviv are expected to include executives from Fuson, Tencents, Lenovo, Baidu, Neosoft, Digital China, Cheetah Mobile, Cofco, BOE, LeTV, PPTV, Honey Capital and many other companies.

The summit's organizers intend to publish the profiles of the participating Israeli companies in Chinese media channels, in order to strengthen the investors' interest and prepare the ground for business meetings which will be held during the conference. Gali Dvir, one of the conference's organizers, notes: "Israeli companies that participate in the summit will be entitled to pre-organized meetings with potential investors. Additionally, the companies will be able to present their products on the conference stage and initiate additional business opportunities."

Ziva Eger, Chief Executive of the Foreign Investments and Industrial Cooperation Authority at the Ministry of Economy said, "China is a strategic target market of the Ministry of Economy in Israel and of the Authority that I lead. On the other hand, Israel and its innovative industry is a target for Chinese investments. I expect that the vast majority of the Israeli venture capital funds which will raise capital in 2016 will include at least one Chinese investor. The significant interest of Chinese companies and investors and the large resources they have are an opportunity for Israeli companies. This fact particularly refers to sectors which include elements of advanced manufacturing, where Israel has a lot to offer, while in China, these capabilities are part of the recent five year plan of the Chinese government."

Senior executives for the CITIC Group, China's largest investment house, have visited Israel last week in order to prepare for the summit which will be held in September. According to Elizabeth Zhang, a senior executive at CITIC: "CITIC Group, the strategic partner that participated in the first conference, which was held in January 2016, has understood the potential during the business meetings between over 100 Israeli companies and 2,300 Chinese investors. What we learned from our customers at the first conference was the fact that Chinese investors prefer to visit the companies in their own country and in their own natural environment before they make the investment, and this is why we are preparing for the conference in Israel."

Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on June 9, 2016