During this mission, we combined forces with our neighbors in Michigan, and we worked cooperatively with the Michigan-Israel Business Bridge. We plan to build on this relationship and continue to explore areas of cooperation and mutual benefit between our two groups.

Some highlights of the successful mission included:

– Our mission started in Beit Shemesh, a rapidly growing city of cutting edge technologies and business people bringing those technologies to the world. We were greeted by the Mayor of Beit Shemesh, Daniel Vaknin, at the Branco Weiss High School. After participating in a very moving memorial service for Prime Minister Yitzchak Rabin with students, staff and city officials, our delegation met with the Mayor and other business leaders to discuss opportunities for business expansion in Illinois. We met with iSkoot – a company that brings leading internet services like Skype™ to mobile handsets around the world – and learned firsthand about many exciting innovative products they are developing for the market. We also toured Solel, a leading solar energy company that produces clean, renewable and competitively priced solar energy, and that is at the forefront of developing this important alternative energy source.

During our day in Beit Shemesh, we shared lunch with Daniel Goldman, an influential VC who is working hard to promote investment in local businesses in Israel. Our lunch was at a local winery where we sampled some of their finest wines and discussed ways to bring those wines for distribution to Chicago. We also had an opportunity to meet with Meir Malka, Director, International Relations, for Beit Shemesh, and to have a very special tour of this vibrant city.

– Jerusalem is home to high-tech business parks, incubators and large corporations. We toured Luz II, a developer of utility-scale solar power plants. Luz II plants generate electrical power by using solar energy to convert water to superheated steam, and recently built a development facility in Israel. Plans were discussed with corporate officials to have Luz II visit Chicago during a future trip to the United States to make a presentation to our membership. Next stop was Oramed Pharmaceuticals – a biotechnology company focused on the commercial development of proprietary oral delivery solutions. We received a briefing on Oramed’s leading product for the treatment of diabetes via an oral insulin capsule, which has the potential to help millions of diabetics worldwide. We anticipate future meetings in Chicago with Oramed executives to discuss areas of mutual cooperation.

Our visit to Jerusalem also included a meeting with our friends at Yissum. Earlier missions have included discussions with Yissum – the technology transfer company of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Yissum is responsible for marketing inventions generated at the University and its portfolio encompasses many fields including nanotechnology, medicine and pharmaceuticals, agriculture and nutrition, water and environmental technologies, computer sciences, homeland security, and much more, resulting in product sales exceeding $1 billion worldwide each year. We continue to explore areas of cooperation between Yissum and Illinois.

– This year marked our fourth consecutive visit to the Prime Minister’s Conference for Export and International Cooperation. This year’s event was held in Jerusalem and was Israel’s National Conference to mark 60 years of independence and economic achievement. This year, the conference featured a main session, plus four parallel conferences, one dealing with Israel’s financial market, and the other three dedicated to technological sectors – life sciences, environmental technologies, and information & communications technology – in which Israel has gained an international reputation for innovation and achievement. Attended by 1,500 business-persons annually, the conference is considered to be Israel’s leading economic conference, and is organized by the four leading economic organizations in Israel: the Manufacturers’ Association of Israel, the Israel Export and International Cooperation Institute, the Federation of Israeli Chambers of Commerce, and the Israel Federation of Bi-National Chambers of Commerce and Industry, in cooperation with the Prime Minister’s Office, the Ministry of Industry, Trade & Labor, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

We have found that our mission visits to the Prime Minister’s Conference serve as an important springboard for us in our efforts to engage in substantive, meaningful dialogue with our counterparts in Israeli business, and this year was no exception. We built on the foundation established with prior missions with important meetings this year to renew and continue our past discussions with Gavriel Maimon, the Director General of the Ministry of Trade and Industry, Dan Catarivas, the Director of the Division of Foreign Trade & International Relations, and Shraga Brosh, President of the Manufacturers’ Association of Israel. Our continued presence at the conference is beginning to get noticed and is helping to foster serious discussions for future areas of cooperation involving AICC and Illinois.

At the conference, our delegation had an opportunity to hear a diverse and varied group of high profile speakers including Eitan Wertheimer, Benjamin Netanyahu, Stanley Fischer, and Ehud Olmert, and to meet and network with many of the attendees from Israel and throughout the world. We also had a chance to share some time with our Israeli friends who have visited us in Chicago on past occasions, including Dr. Uriel Lynn, the President of the Federation of Israeli Chambers of Commerce.

– At the conclusion of our visit, we shared a private meeting and dinner with Yaacov Fisher, a former senior economist in the research department of the Bank of Israel. Yaacov is a recognized expert about the economy and business in Israel, and the founder of I-Biz (http://www.i-biz.co.il), Israel’s leading supplier of value-added intelligence and analysis, both customized and off-the-shelf, on the Israeli and global economies and financial markets. I-Biz is a monthly report regarded as an efficient way of tracking developments in the Israeli economy, and is available for an annual subscription for a very nominal charge. 

We had an engaging and spirited discussion about the Israeli economy and Yaacov answered many questions with insightful and informative comments. Yaacov plans a visit to the United States during 2009 and he promised to make sure he stops in Chicago so we can have the pleasure of hosting him at an event where he can make a presentation about the Israel economy to our membership.

This year’s mission will serve as a good foundation for planned missions next year including one timed to coincide with the Israel Biomed Exhibition and Conference, presently scheduled for June 15-17, 2009, in Tel Aviv. AICC is working with the Illinois Biotechnology Industry Organization (iBIO®), the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity, and the University of Illinois, to organize a business delegation and mission to attend this important Israel business conference, and we encourage all interested persons to contact the Chamber for more information.

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