Israel is a country ranked 1st in the world in quality of its scientific research institutions. A country that invests 4,8% of its GDP in R&D – higher than any other OECD country. A country that attracts an enviable large number of foreign companies. Microsoft, Berkshire- Hathaway, Motorola, Intel, HP, Siemens, Samsung, GE, Philips, Lucent, AOL, Cisco, Applied Materials, Winbond, Deutsche Telecom, IBM and J&J, just to mention a few multinational enterprises, have all established R&D departments in Israel, while Apple is currently in Israel discussing opportunities of opening their first R&D facility outside the US.

Not surprisingly, Israel has more companies on the NASDAQ than any other country outside North America, barring China. In addition, Israel has more patents per capita than any other country in the world. In short, Israel is at the world’s technological forefront, and in many ways spearheads the world’s efforts to continuously develop better solutions to the technical and socio-economic challenges of today. The outcome: growth and welfare.

According to The Economist Israel experienced positive economic growth in its GDP through the economic crisis. A steady increase in the growth from 2013 will return it to the level from before the crisis of 5,3% by 2016. Also, Israel attracts more Venture Capital per capita than any other nation – and is expected to attract even more in the coming years.

The latest figures from The EU’s Seventh Framework Programme show that Israel is ranked above average when it comes to education and career development, and when it comes to attracting and retaining the most talented scientist and promoting world-class scientific research in new, fast emerging fields.

Danish export to Israel in 2010 amounted to 1,1bn DKK – an increase of 15,4% compared to 2009. The most important commodity group was medical and pharmaceutical products, which were exported for a total of 358m DKK in 2010 – an increase of 46,4% compared to 2009. Recently published figures show us that Danish export in total will grow in 2012 and 13, but that it will decrease in markets hit by the recession. This suggests an even stronger growth in the export to growing and well founded markets, such as the Israeli.

In conclusion, the high level of human capital and traditions of international cooperation tell us that

Israel is increasingly to be recognized as a player on the global scene and as a relevant and important cooperation partner for Denmark. In particular, its thriving ICT and Life Science industries make the Israeli market ideal for collaborations between companies, universities, and tech transfer organisations.