Israel Canada Chamber of Commerce Newsletter 
   Issue No.  12

www.israel-canada.org

Contents

What is New at the Chamber

Business Proposals

From the Desk of the Economic Attaché in Toronto

Summary of Events at Israeli Embassy in Ottawa

Headlines from Israeli Newspapers

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What is New at the Chamber

The award gala dinner held by the chamber on February 7^th, 2005 at the Hilton Hotel in Tel Aviv was a great success. 420 businessmen and guests attended. Amongst the participants were Israel Vice Premier and Minister of Industry and Trade, Mr. Ehud Olmert and the Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Mr. Pierre Pettigrew, who visited Israel with a delegation of Canadian politicians and who stressed Canada’s intention to be involved in economic projects that would contribute to the development of the Middle East. Both Ministers took part in handing out awards to 13 companies that were leaders in developing Canadian and Israeli Trade.

The event was widely covered in the press by about 20 Israeli and Canadian news people. To read articles in the press about the event press here.

All the attendees received toolboxes compliments of the Zag Company

Award Recipients

To view and order photos of the event press here.

Mr. Mark Gold the Chairman of the Canada Israel Committee was also in attendance. The CIC is the roof organization of the Canadian Jewish community. Mr. Gold congratulated the participants in the name of Canadian Jewry. Mr. Gold also expressed an interest in developing closer relations with the Chamber.

On the left is Mr. Pierre Pettigrew and on the right is
Advocate Yehuda Raveh, President of the Chamber.

In tribute to the dinner the Chamber issued a commemorative brochure. It contains information about Israeli-Canadian trade, articles about companies doing business in Canada, a list of important addresses and more.

You can download the brochure off of the Internet (the file is large and it takes some time to download) Press here and wait patiently

Israel Canadian Trade Grows by 20 percent
Ephraim Shoham, Israel’s economic attaché in Canada announced that the two way trade between Israel and Canada grew by 20% in 2004 in comparison to 2003. In 2004 Israel’s direct exports to Canada amounted to 380 million US dollars and indirect exports (by way of the United States) to 150 million dollars. Canadian exports to Israel during the same period totaled 270 million US dollars.

The Canadian Transport Minister Jean C. Lapierre visited Israel to study its experience in transportation safety and to take part in the opening ceremonies of Yad VaShem. At a dinner held in his honor by the Israeli Transport Minister Meir Shitreet the Canadian Minister noted that upon his receiving the transportation portfolio he decided to deal with safety issues. He visited Israel’s ports, traveled along Highway 6 (Israel’s fully automated toll road), Ben Gurion Airport as well as other sites.

Business Proposals

A Canadian company is looking for consumer goods for chain stores in North America. We are interested in representing Israeli companies. For details please contact the chamber.

From the Desk of our Economic Attaché in Canada – Ephraim Shoham

Investment Opportunities in Israel – Venture Capital Assembly in Montreal

The Economic Delegation plans to put on an event for Venture Capital funds in which participants will be presented with investment opportunities in Israel. The event will take place on June 20-21 in Montreal.

Work Visit in Vancouver
I conducted a work visit to Vancouver on February 8-10. My purpose was to develop new working relationships in British Columbia and to promote investments, the purchase of Israeli products and advance Israeli participation in projects such as the Winter Olympics in Vancouver in 2010, the BioTech Convention in Israel in May 2005 and the International BioTech Convention in Philadelphia in June 2005 as well as other matters.

Amongst the various companies I met with was Holding Company, which includes various industries throughout Canada: Cochrane, Relaxus, Executive Security Ltd. And MacDonald Dettweiler (MDA)

Work Visit to Israel

I visited Israel between February 27 and March 7 in order to escort two Canadian missions that we helped to organize.

The Canadian Space Agency Mission
The mission included 13 participants. In the course of the visit the Israeli and Canadian Space Agencies signed a Technology and Science Cooperative Agreement. The mission visited Refael (Israeli Defense Industry), Israeli Aircraft Industry/Mabat, Elta and Elbit/Aluf. In addition the Israeli Export Institute arranged for the mission to meet with 10 Israeli companies that deal with space industry technology and products. The aim was to create cooperative frameworks with the Canadian Space Agency and Canadian space industries.

The Canadian Police Chiefs Mission
The police chiefs’ mission was the guest of the Israeli Police and the Ministry of Internal Security. Our economic mission, with the cooperation of the Export Institute, made sure that the 32 members of the mission were given demonstrations of various Israeli High Tech security systems and products at an event in which 12 Israeli companies took part.

Planned Activities
During the current year we are planning other major activities in order to promote Israeli exports to Canada. This will be done by way of the economic delegations located in Toronto and Montreal and which are responsible for covering all of Canada. These events include:

A meeting between Canadian and Israeli Aeronautic Industries is planned at the Paris Air Show in June.

Meetings between biotechnology companies are planned in the course of international conventions that will take place in Tel Aviv in May and in Philadelphia in June.

Visit of the Canadian Minister of Industry, possibly in September, at the head of a mission of Canadian High Tech industries.

A meeting is planned for September in Canada regarding cooperation between Israeli firms dealing with security and homeland defense and the appropriate Canadian organizations and institutions.

A delegation of Christian Canadian businessmen plans to visit Israel in October in order to meet with suitable counterparts. This is a joint initiative on the part of the economic delegation in Canada and the Canadian Christian Chamber of Commerce.

Israeli products exhibition: the economic delegation has initiated and in cooperation with the Export Institute is planning an exhibition of Israeli products as part of the General Assembly of the Jewish Federations of North America which will take place this year in Toronto. 4,000 participants are expected.

In December a delegation of Canadian industrialists in the field of environmental quality will visit Israel in order to meet with appropriate Israeli industrialists for the purposes of international cooperation.

Events at the Israeli Embassy in Ottawa

February 28^th – Israel and the Middle East- public debate

Ambassador Alan Baker was the guest of the University of Toronto Hart House debating club, one of the oldest and most prestigious in North America. The Ambassador spoke before students and faculty about the just positions of the State of Israel.

February 2^nd- Meeting with Canadian Industry Minister

Ambassador Alan Baker accompanied by Deputy Head of Mission Gil-Or and Trade Commissioner Shoham met with Industry Minister David Emerson. The meeting revolved around Canada-Israel Industrial Science and Technology collaboration, future industrial R&D foundations with the provinces of Ontario and Quebec and the business potential of Israeli companies’ ties with British Columbia.

FUTURE EVENTS

March9-10 Judith Katzir, Internationally Acclaimed Israeli author, in Ottawa for International Women Week

May 11^th – Yom Hazikaron- Memorial Day for Israel’s Fallen Soldiers

May 12^th – Independence Day celebrations

June 5^th –26^th – Israeli Film Festival in Ottawa

From the Israeli Press

By courtesy of “Yifat”

The Canadian company Icon will bid for a tender to pave a toll road at the entrance of Tel Aviv (Globes, March 16)

Nice Systems has reported a transaction with the National Bank of Canada which entails changing the voice recording system of a competing firm to the NicePerform solution (Ha’Aretz, March 15)

The Kahanoff Fund from Calgary Canada has invested in Sharm-Pudim-Klener (Globes, March 10)

The Minister of Internal Security from Ottawa Province and 40 other Canadian police chiefs have visited Israel (The Marker, March 8)

Comverse and the Canadian Company Research in Motion (RIM) from Waterloo, Ontario are developing a voice and visual recording unit for BlackBerry. It will be a system that deals with electronic mail while walking or traveling (Globes (February, 16)

INF Systems, which specializes in applications and solutions for the management of documents and content as well as organizational work procedures, has announced that it has signed an agreement to upgrade and expand the work process management system for the Canadian Insurance Company OTIP. The cost of the project is one million shekels. (Information Week, March 6)

The Canadian Minister for Foreign Affairs, Pierre Pettigrew, stated in a speech he gave at the Gala Dinner of the Chamber of Commerce that: “we will contribute to the economic development of the Middle East” (LeYezion, Febrary 22)

The Canadian Jewish billionaire, Jerry Schwartz, plans to visit Israel in May to explore the possibility of buying controlling interest in Bank Leumi as well as investment opportunities in cooperation with the Israel Aircraft Industry (Globes, March 1)

Air Canada is getting ready to operate a daily flight from Tel Aviv to Toronto beginning in June this year (Tourist Guide, February 17)

The Ravid firm has purchased a commercial site in Montreal for 16.4 million dollars (Globes, March 7)

The Jerusalem Economic Corporation has completed the purchase of a shopping center in Toronto for 112 million dollars (Globes, March 10)

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The Israel-Canada Chamber of Commerce, 32 Ben Yehuda Street, El-Al Building, room 1107, Tel Aviv 63805, Tel: 972-3-6202544, Fax: 972-3-6202513
email: info@israel-canada.org
Chamber website www.israel-canada.org

Editing and Translation courtesy of the Ziv Group