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ISRAEL CANADA
CHAMBER OF COMMERCE NEWSLETTER Contents: If you do not wish to
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Welcome,
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The Canadian and Israeli Governments founded the CIIRDF in 1994. The Foundation aids companies from both countries to find technological partners. It also helps fund R&D projects conducted in common by Israeli and Canadian firms. To date the Fund has supported more than 40 projects in various areas. The next meeting of the Foundation’s Board will take place in Israel at the end of January. The Board will select 5-7 new projects for Foundation support.
About a year ago the Foundation entered a new area of activity in cooperation with a Consortium of Israeli and Canadian firms dealing in basic technology of Photonics/Optical Communications and Pharmalogica. This activity is conducted in cooperation with “MAGNET” and many other Canadian companies.
Dr.
Henry Rothschild heads the Foundation and Ms. Adi Riza is the Israeli
representative. Further information about the Foundation can be found at www.ciirdf.ca |
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A delegation of 15 businessmen and senior political leaders from Canada visited Israel on November 24-16. The delegation included Mike Harris, the Premier of Ontario and Brian Tobin, a leader of the Liberal Party, former Premier of NewFoundland and twice Minister in Prime Minister Jean Chretien’s governments. It also included Mr. Leonard Asper, a communications magnate, Mr. Sidney Greenberg, General Manager of Astral Media, one of Canada’s most important communications companies, and others.
A
delegation of Canadian Christian Ambassadors (an international organization
active in promoting humanitarian issues with representatives in 109
countries) visited Israel on November 8-13. The delegation included four senior businessmen and its
aim was twofold: to express their support for Israel and to develop business connections. They met with members of Knesset, the
Canadian-Israel Friendship League, the Director General of Israel Railways,
the Managing Director of “Sidko” in the Agricultural Ministry, “Tnuva” and
others. |
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CHAMBER
NEWS
The Chamber is preparing a Mentoring Program of Canadian Businessmen for Israeli Companies. The program is called “Shaking Hands”. Israeli companies that participate in the program will be coupled with a volunteer Canadian businessman who will assist them in gathering information about and making contacts in Canada. This program will be presented at the seminar “Doing Business in Canada” that will take place in the near future. Companies interested in taking part should contact the Chamber.
The Chamber’s Board had a get acquainted meeting with Canada’s Ambassador in Israel, Mr. Donald Sinclair. Ms. Suzanne Szukits, the Trade Attaché, and Mr. Mark Bailey, the Director of the Foreign Affairs Ministry and International Trade Department, also took part in the meeting. During the meeting ideas were exchanged regarding the possibility of expanding trade between the two countries as well as cooperation between the Embassy and the Chamber. Ari Merom, from the Tourism Ministry, requested that the Embassy review its recommendation “to refrain from visiting Israel” and the Ambassador said they review the situation on a regular basis. The conclusion of the meeting was that there would be mutual updating and additional quarterly meetings. Chamber members interested in participating in meetings are invited to contact the Chamber’s secretary. The Chamber Newsletter resulted in numerous inquires from businesses and businessmen. More than 15 firms asked the Chamber for assistance, half of which expressed an interest in joining the Chamber. The Chamber’s Board participated in a number of events with members of the Canadian delegation to the General Assembly of the United Jewish Communities. The intent of these meetings was to expand connections with Canadian businessmen.
A session of the Chamber’s Board decided to assist Globes newspaper to produce a special supplement about Canada. This assistance will consist of soliciting the sponsorship of Canadian and Israeli companies. This supplement will replace the Chamber’s annual brochure. It will be distributed to 40,000 subscribers and will be read by about 200,000 people. It will appear in English, so as to be utilized as advertising material at various events around the world.
The Chamber has reached an agreement with a local firm that offers professional services in market research and finding distributors for Canadian companies wishing to do business in Israel. Detailed information about these services appear on the Chambers website. We have also established connections with Canadian companies that provide similar services in Canada. For details please contact the Chamber. |
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HEADLINES FROM ISRAELI
NEWSPAPERS
The
Variant Company manages fleets of field technicians. They won a contract with “Alta-Gas”,
a Canadian firm that distributes gas in Alberta Province (Ha’Aretz, 24
October) Ravad
Company purchased an office building of 7,000 square meters in the heart
of Montreal for 6 million dollars.
They joined other Israeli real estate companies and entrepreneurs that
have invested in Canada (Globes, 22 October) Yaacov
Angel and Ayalon Insurance are in negotiations to purchase an office
building in the business district of Montreal (Globes, 23 October) Bern
Company and Sami Katzav will build 470 luxury apartments in Toronto on
the shores of Lake Ontario. The deal
is valued at 70 million dollars (Globes, 26 October) Propimax
invests for the first time in Canada, it has repaired 303
apartments in three buildings near Toronto (Globes, 11 November) Propimax
has invested 204 million dollars in the
purchase of real estate in Canada over the past two years. These investments were made by a
group of investors put together by Propimax. (Globes, 27 October) FRC, the Investment Company of Gazit Globe has
redeemed Bonds worth 20 million dollars before their maturity in order to
reduce interest payments of the company. FRC is traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange and is valued
at 450 million dollars (Globes, 27 October) The
Israel-Canada Fund is a partner in an initiative to bring 10 doctors who
are expert in emergency medicine from Canada and the United States to
Israel. They will each receive a
grant of $180,000 plus assistance in finding employment. (Ha’Aretz, 3
November) The Canadian dollar which has reached a record of 1.30 in comparison to the American dollar reflects not only the weakness of the American economy but also the strength and stability of the Canadian economy. Canada has had budget surplus for six years running. The strength of the Canadian dollar has caused difficulties for exporters and resulted in the firing of 80,000 workers in the manufacturing sector. (Ha’Aretz, 4 November – taken from an article in the Economist) The
Canadian Company TVC, which supplies added value solutions for suppliers
of cable television, will purchase the products of the Israeli Start-Up Allot Communications, which develops solutions
for network management. TVC
enables Allot full exposure to the Canadian market. (Globes, 5 November)
Two
Canadian Companies – Bombardier and Akon are partners in two of the four groups
bidding for the Tel Aviv light rail project. (Yediot Ahronot, 5
November). The project is valued
8.5 billion shekels, its construction will take 6 years and it includes a
tender for 32 years according to the BOT method. Minister
of Industry, Trade and Tourism Olmert agrees to the request of the
Diamond Industry to meet with representatives of unfinished diamond exporting
countries (including Canada) in order to guarantee the supply of unfinished
diamonds to Israel’s diamond industry. (Globes, 6 November) The
Canadian Communications Equipment Giant Nortel Networks purchased the
remainder of Koor’s share (28%) in Nortel Networks Israel. The estimated price of the deal was
3.9 million dollars. (Yediot Ahronot, 6
November) The
Minister of Industry for Manitoba Province in Canada visited Israel and
toured the Galilee with the Director of Mati in Kiryat Shimona (“Kol Emek
Ha’Galil” Afula weekly, 7 November) The
Partner Company will purchase 3rd generation technology of
Nortel Networks for its mobile telephone network. (Ha’Aretz, 11 November) The
Sheraton Moriah Hotel Chain in Israel has requested that the Ontario
Company owned by Yoav Igra and the Canadian Billionaire Saul Feldberg, be
broken up because of non-payment of a 21 million dollar debt. (Ha’Aretz, 18
November) Global Finance Magazine has ranked RBC (Royal Bank of Canada) number 11 in the world and number one in North America in terms of safety. RBC is a strategic partner and senior stockholder in Tamir Fishman Company (Yediot Ahronot, 20 November) |
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The Canadian Government’s website http://www.canada.gc.ca represents
an excellent example of the proper use of the Internet to convey information
to the public. The Site is a
Government Information Portal that organizes and presents information from
many governmental sources in a convenient manner. The design is simple and
user-friendly. Navigation possibilities are
varied and include: information for Canadians, information for non-Canadians,
a site map, a detailed subject index and of course an internal search
engine. Businessmen can find a
great deal of information about economics, industry, demography, market
researches and statistical data, company guides and more. Our recommendation is to begin your
search with Doing Business with Canada. The site is maintained by a governmental body (Canada Communication) dedicated to conveying information to the public. The question is when will Israel have a similar website? |
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To subscribe or
to unsubscribe from the Newsletter please notify Chamber Mail. To advertise in the Newsletter please contact the Chamber. The Israel-Canada
Chamber of Commerce, 32 Ben Yehuda Street, El-Al Building, room 1107, Chamber website www.israel-canada.org |