ISRAEL – CANADA CHAMBER OF COMMERCE NEWSLETTER

 Issue No. 4,  February - March  2004  

 

 

Contents
Words from the Editor  
Report from the Israeli embassy in Ottawa
Canadian-Israeli Research and Development Fund
Report from the Canadian Embassy in Israel
Headlines From Israeli Newspapers
Website of the Month

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Greetings,

The “Shake Hands with Israeli Industry” project initiated by the Chamber has gone into high gear.  Upon receipt of a letter of endorsement from Israel’s ambassador in Canada, Mr. Haim Divon, we have begun to advertise the project, mostly by way of email.  At present more than 35 Canadian businessmen have registered as volunteers for the project. Two thirds of them have agreed to escort particular Israeli companies while the rest have agreed to help on an ad hoc basis according to their capability.  You can examine a partial list of the capabilities of the volunteers on the Chamber website.  The Chamber has begun to distribute profiles of Israeli companies that have expressed an interest in taking part in the project.

At the end of March we are planning a meeting between the management of the Chamber and a group of pro-Israel Christians who will be visiting our country.

During the month of April we plan to meet with the Canadian ambassador in Israel, Mr. Donald Sinclair.  Members of the Chamber who wish to take part in the meeting should contact us as soon as possible as places are limited.

On April 28th the Chamber will host a seminar on “Doing Business in Canada”.  The seminar will be co-sponsored by the Export Institute.  Those wishing to participate are invited to contact the Chamber.

Pleasant reading,

Amos Cohen
Director of the Chamber of Commerce


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Report from the Israeli Embassy in Ottawa

 

 14/1/2004 Chamber music concert in Ottawa
Israeli musicians Shmuel Katz and Dimitri Steinberg performed in a concert at the University of Ottawa organized by the Embassy of Israel in association with the Canada-Israel Cultural Foundation. Katz and Steinberg are critically acclaimed international musicians and appeared in Carnegie Hall for their international début. The program included Sonatas by recent and earlier composers.

27/1/2004 Israel humanitarian aid program—presentation event at the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs  -Carleton University
Under the title ‘Israel - from recipient to donor’, The ambassador of Israel presented Israel’s international development and humanitarian aid program to graduate students, faculty and Canadian government officials at the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs.

Israel’s aid program for developing countries under the department for international cooperation in Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs – MASHAV – has been operating for more than 40 years in the most disadvantaged countries in the world. The ambassador, a former director of MASHAV, demonstrated that Israel has turned from a recipient of international aid to a donor and a global player in international development and training programs for developing countries in a variety of areas including agricultural training, medical assistance, community development, entrepreneurship and more.

Ancient treasures and the Dead Sea Scrolls – exhibition and lecture series - breaking attendance records
The “Museum of Civilization” reported this month that the exhibition of ancient treasures and the Dead Sea scrolls (lent by the Israel Museum) has broken all attendance records. The Canadian media also reported that the lecture series about the Dead Sea Scrolls has been getting unprecedented attention from the public and lecture venues have been completely full. 
 

Report from the Canadian Embassy in Israel

 

MEDAX Israel Medical Week - Tel Aviv, Israel - March 1-3, 2004
The 15th international hospital supply and medical technology trade fair in Israel (MEDAX) will be held concurrently with Israel Medical Week, covering medical equipment and technology, medicines, pharmaceuticals, electro-medicine, physiotherapy, orthopaedic technology, rescue and emergency medicine, hospital and laboratory equipment. For further information, please contact: mailto:mona.mansour-ashkar@dfait-maeci.gc.ca

Plast-Ex 2004 - Toronto - May 3-5, 2004
Israel has a solid and sophisticated plastics industry valued at approximately $2.5 billion dollars.  Machinery (Injection molding primarily), raw materials and resins are all being sourced abroad by Israeli plastics manufacturers and this offers good export opportunities for Canadian companies. Rebecca Shafrir, Business Development Officer at the Canadian Embassy in Tel Aviv, will attend Plast-Ex 2004 in Toronto to promote opportunities in the Israeli market. For more information please contact:  rebecca.shafrir-schitrit@dfait-maeci.gc.ca

BIO-ISRAEL 2004 - Tel Aviv, Israel - May 4-6, 2004
Bio-Israel 2004 is Israel's premier biotechnology trade fair and conference covering drugs, indications, gene therapy, vaccines, computer-aided drug discovery and bio-informatics (including functional genomics), nano-biotechnology and bio-electronics, bio-products, development and enabling technologies, laboratory equipment and instruments, as well as medical devices. A preliminary conference program is available on: http://www.kenes.com/biotech/prog.htm For further information, please contact: mailto:mona.mansour-ashkar@dfait-maeci.gc.ca

BIO2004 - San Francisco, California June 6-9, 2004
This annual BIO event anticipates an attendance of 20,000 biotechnology and life sciences professionals from all aspects of the industry and from all parts of the globe including a significant contingent of Israeli companies. Mona Mansour-Ashkar, the Business Development Officer at the Canadian Embassy in Israel will be on site to promote strategic alliances between Canadian and Israeli companies at both the pre- and post-commercialization stages. For further information contact:
mona.mansour-ashkar@dfait-maeci.gc.ca    

Environment 2004 - Tel Aviv, Israel - June 8-10, 2004
Environment 2004 is Israel's annual international trade fair and conference on business opportunities in the Israeli environmental technologies market. For more information please contact mailto:mona.mansour-ashkar@dfait-maeci.gc.ca  or visit: <http://www.environment-israel.com>

Cebit 2004, March 18-24, 2004 - Hanover, Germany.
Cebit is the largest European ICT show. A partnering event for Canadian and Israeli companies is scheduled for March 21.  Jessica Nachlas, Business Development Officer from the Canadian Embassy in Tel Aviv will attend the show to promote opportunities for partnering between Canadian and Israeli companies. For more information, please contact Jessica Nachlas at: jessica.nachlas@dfait-maeci.gc.ca

Business Opportunities for Gas Pipeline Engineers, Consultants, Operators and Builders

There will be an upcoming tender for onshore gas pipeline in Israel. This will be for a Natural Gas Distribution Turnkey Project for building an onshore gas pipeline and the Tender is expected to be published in April/May 2004. For more information, please contact Jessica Nachlas, the Business Development Officer from the Canadian Embassy in Tel Aviv at: jessica.nachlas@dfait-maeci.gc.ca

What's new?
Teva Pharmaceuticals transfers manufacturing to Canada
Israel-based Teva Pharmaceuticals recently decided to close its US plant in New Jersey and transfer these operations to its manufacturing facility in Markham, Ontario. Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. is among the top pharmaceutical companies in the world.

 

Canadian-Israeli Research and Development Fund  

http://www.ciirdf.ca

 

 

Last month the Board of Directors of the Canada-Israel Industrial Research and Development Foundation (CIIRDF) authorized grants to four new Canadian-Israel projects.  The total budget for these projects is about 2.5 million Canadian dollars.  The projects were in the field of communications, film distribution, satellite photography planning and water supply.

 

  • The Israeli firm Kilolambada Ltd. and the Canadian firm Metkonkis Ltd. are developing an integrated optical system that will combine systems from the two companies
  • The Israeli firm Moonlite Ltd. and the Canadian firm Digiscreen Ltd. are developing Cinema I which is a movie distribution system that includes a digital projector, movie content and movie film server of high resolution.  This will enable them to provide digital cinema at a low price
  • The Israeli firm Elbit Systems Ltd. and the Canadian firm MacDonald/Deitweiller and Associates Ltd. will develop and market an efficient fast and easy to use system for planning the reception of satellite pictures from a multi-function track
  • The Israeli firm Mekorot Ltd. and the Canadian firm Zenon Environmental Quality Ltd. are developing an inexpensive integral membrane system for desalinization and upgrading of water

 

The CIIRDF Fund was established in 1994 and has authorized over 50 international cooperation projects since then.  For the past year the Fund has been active in developing connections between Israeli and Canadian consortia in the areas of optical communications, life sciences and pharmaceuticals.  The Fund finances 50% of the expenses of the cooperative project up to 800,000 Canadian dollars per project.

 

Adi Riza, Director of CIIRDF in Israel, announced that the Fund does not limit itself to financing but also assists in helping Israeli firms find Canadian technology partners, making the first contact and bridging over gaps in business language and culture.

 

Selected exhibitions in Canada, April-May 2004

 

 The Flower, Plant & Garden Show
Show Type: Public Show
Place Bonaventure, Montreal
Apr 16, 2004 - Apr 18, 2004

 

ApEx 2004  

(Food)
Show Type: Tradeshow with conf.
Exhibition Park Halifax, Halifax
Apr 18, 2004 - Apr 20, 2004

 

ICCM Canada 2004

(Call Center & CRM Solutions)
Show Type: Tradeshow with conf.
Metro Toronto Convention Center (MTCCC), Toronto
Apr 19, 2004 - Apr 21, 2004

 

Canadian Health Food Association - Expo West - Trade Show and Conference
Show Type: Tradeshow with conf.
Vancouver Convention & Exhibition Center, Vancouver
Apr 22, 2004 - Apr 25, 2004

 

Smart City Summit

(broadband networks, wireless technologies, security)

Show Type: Tradeshow with conf.
Lansdowne Park, Ottawa
Apr 27, 2004 - Apr 28, 2004

 

Communications 2004

(telecom infrastructure)
Show Type: Tradeshow with conf.
Metro Toronto Convention Center (MTCCC), Toronto
May 04, 2004 - May 05, 2004

 

Montreal Fabricating & Machine Tool Show
Show Type: Tradeshow
Place Bonaventure, Montreal
May 17, 2004 - May 19, 2004

 

Headlines From Israeli Newspapers

Provided by the generosity of the “Ifat” Company

The Israel Air Authority has approved a charter flight between Israel and Canada.  The flight will operate once a week using a Boeing 757, beginning in July 2004.  The approval was granted to the Canadian charter flight company “Skytours” (Ha’aretz, Feb 11, 2004)

The programming company Lavie Timetech of the Team Group has doubled its sales in the Canadian market.  The company sells employee attendance data processing systems.  Their sales in 2003 totaled 10 million Shekels (Ha’aretz, Feb. 11 2004)

The Israel Aircraft Industry and Elisra are competing to supply electronic warfare systems for helicopters to the Canadian army. (Yediot Ahronot, February 18 2004)

Profimax company has announced that it has purchased an apartment building of 98 apartments in the Cambridge area (100 kilometers from Toronto) for 5 million dollars. Two months ago the company bought a complex of 300 apartments in the same area for 20 million dollars. (Globes, December 29, 2003)

The Sky Line company has purchased the Pentigas Hotel in Toronto for 36 million dollars.  The hotel contains 164 apartments and suites. (Globes, January 5, 2004)

The real estate company Hamniv Edgar, of the Tsur Shamir Group, plans to purchase income-producing property in Toronto.

Yitzhak Tshuva is conducting negotiations to purchase 8500 apartment units in the heart of Montreal (Ha’Aretz, January 22, 2004)

The ArEl Communications company has received an order from a Canadian wholesale company worth 1.6 million dollars for an interactive distance learning system.  The system will be used to train the 10,000 employees of the company.

Electra Real Estate, of the Electra Israel Group, announced the completion of a deal to purchase 70% of a  25 - story office building in Toronto. (Yediot Ahronot, January 20, 2004)

The Gravity Company, which deals with post-production, opened a branch in Canada. (Yediot Ahronot, January 19, 2004)

The Danya Seebus Company, controlled by the Africa-Israel company began building 225 apartment units in Toronto.  The project will cost 22 million dollars. (Ha’Aretz, January 26, 2004)

Canadian First Capital, a subsidiary of Gazit Globe, has completed the purchase of four shopping centers in Montreal, Ontario and Quebec on an aggregate floor space of 30,000 square meters. The price tag was 33 million dollars (Yediot Ahronot, January 29, 2004)

The NICE company was chosen to provide recording and quality assurance solutions for the Cuets company of Canada, a service provider of MasterCard in Canada (Maariv, January 28, 2004)

The Rite company hopes to improve its financial situation by way of a strategic cooperation agreement with Nordex of Canada, a subsidiary of Cable Design.  The Canadian company will distribute Patch View of Rite (Ha’Aretz, February 4, 2004)

The Canadian Company Opti, a subsidiary of Ormat, has finally decided to initiate a project at Long Lake, which is designed to produce 70,000 barrels of oil a day.  The total investment will come to 3.4 billion Canadian dollars (Yediot Ahronot, February 16, 2004)

 

 Website of the month

 

The Canadian Government has published the Atlas of Canada since 1906.  It contains the largest amount of geographical information on Canada available.  The Internet version of the Atlas contains more than 300 maps that provide various kinds of data about Canada including the results of censuses and polls conducted by the Government.  The subjects included in the Website are: demographics, economics, health, weather, natural resources, nature sites, forests, water and more.  The site’s address is http://atlas.gc.ca/site/english/index.html

 


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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



 ZIV GROUP  Editing and Translation by the