Shanghai mayor visits Israel to deepen cooperation in innovation and key industries

Shanghai Mayor Ying Yong led a delegation to visit Israel from June 5 to 7. During the trip, Ying successively met Eli Cohen, minister of the Ministry of Economy and Industry of Israel; Ofir Akunis, minister of Israel’s Ministry of Science, Technology and Space; Ami Appelbaum, chairman of Israel Innovation Authority; and Yona Yahav, mayor of Haifa.

Ying also inspected the ports and technological cooperation projects in Israel.

Ying said the cooperation between Shanghai and Israel has great potential and Israel is known as a nation of innovation and it has so many innovation companies, especially in the applied technology industry. Whereas Shanghai has the advantages in technological personnel, technologies, capital and markets, so the two can deepen their cooperation in industries of communication technologies, artificial intelligence, biomedicine, integrated circuit and some others.

Shanghai wishes to attract more Israeli R&D companies to commercialize their research findings, and the city will support the Sino-Israel Innovation Center, build the Sino-Israel Innovation Park and industrial park, under the umbrella of the city’s intellectual property protection, Ying added.

Cohen said technology industry is Israel’s strong suit and it has a comparable number of technological start-ups to that of the whole Europe. Shanghai and Israel can take advantages of their complementary advantages to strengthen their cooperation.

Akunis said Israel’s Ministry of Science, Technology and Space and Ministry of Economy and Industry are willing to jointly build a laboratory and the Sino-Israel Innovation Center.

Appelbaum said Israel Innovation Authority dedicates to the commercialization of Israel’s technological research findings and it wishes to strengthen the cooperation with Shanghai’s scientists, universities and start-up technology firms.

Also during Ying’s trip, Shanghai Science and Technology Commission and Israel Innovation Authority signed cooperation agreements on technological innovation.

While meeting Yahav, Ying said Shanghai and Haifa established twin city tie 25 years ago and the two have carried out extensive cooperation ever since. Shanghai wishes to deepen the cooperation in trade, technology, port, and cultural industries with Haifa and enhance their twin city tie.

Yahav said Haifa values the relationship with Shanghai and admires Shanghai’s achievements in every aspect. Haifa welcomes Shanghai’s cooperation projects.

Later, Ying and Yahav also attended the signing ceremony of Shanghai International Port Co’s terminal project at port of Haifa. Ying said Shanghai is accelerating its construction of the international shipping center and Haifa is Israel’s biggest port city, so Shanghai hopes the terminal project can be a demonstration project for the two cities’ cooperation, promoting more in-depth cooperation.

In addition, Ying and his delegation also inspected Shanghai’s Aowei Technology’s super-capacitor demonstration bus route in Tel Aviv-Yafo, unmanned-vehicle company Mobileye, and Techcode Israel Global Innovation Center to learn about the technological cooperation between Shanghai and Israel.

Cai Weiming, charge d’affaires of Embassy of China to Israel, and Eyal Propper, Israel consul-general to Shanghai, also attended related events.