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Soumitra Dutta
Israel                     Augusto Lopez-Claros
                           Irene Mia
Factors in the Emergence
of an ICT Powerhouse
Israel: Factors in the Emergence of an ICT Powerhouse

                                                                                                     Introduction1
                                                        Israel: Factors in the Emergence             It has been the Israeli government’s explicit goal to position
                                                        of an ICT Powerhouse                         their country at the center of the knowledge economy,
                                                                                                     but the process has been neither fully planned nor
                                                                                                     completely organic.There has been close collaboration
                                                        AUGUSTO LOPEZ-CLAROS, World Economic Forum
                                                                                                     between government and business, with government
                                                        IRENE MIA, World Economic Forum
                                                                                                     involvement focused and limited, ready to withdraw as
                                                                                                     soon as the private sector was able to continue on its own.
                                                                                                           This case study highlights the important role of the
                                                                                                     government in the emergence of Israel as a high-tech
                                                                                                     power, encouraging and supporting the capacity of the
                                                                                                     private sector to compete in international markets.
                                                                                                     Significant components of government action have taken
                                                                                                     the form of a) heavy investment in education, reinforced
                                                                                                     by large-scale immigration to provide the necessary
                                                                                                     human capital, b) effective investment incentives favoring
                                                                                                     foreign investors to build industrial momentum, c) invest-
                                                                                                     ment in R&D in a proportion of GDP (4.6 percent)
                                                                                                     higher than that of any other industrialized country, and
                                                                                                     d) incubator and venture capital programs to convert
                                                                                                     research into cutting edge businesses.
                                                                                                           Alongside these helpful interventions, providing a
                                                                                                     backdrop for the development of information and com-
                                                                                                     munication technologies, Israel has also made important
                                                                                                     strides in laying the foundation for macroeconomic stabil-
                                                                                                     ity. Not only has inflation fallen sharply from the runaway
                                                                                                     levels seen in the mid 1980s, but wide-ranging reforms
            2
                                                                                                     have been put in place aimed at reducing the scale of the
                                                                                                     public sector and the role of the state in the allocation of
                                                                                                     resources, and, more generally, at supporting the modern-
                                                                                                     ization of the economy.
                                                                                                           This paper will outline the role of the Israeli govern-
                                                                                                     ment in supporting ICT development, and the influence
                                                                                                     of education, culture, immigration, and security issues on
                                                                                                     Israel’s achievements.This is followed by a detailed discus-
                                                                                                     sion of the role of government in investment and R&D,
                                                                                                     and the relationship between the ICT sector and Israel’s
                                                                                                     overall economy.


                                                                                                     The role of government
                                                                                                     Recent Israeli economic history is an excellent showcase
                                                                                                     of the key contribution efficient government intervention
                                                                                                     can make to the overall innovation potential and ICT
                                                                                                     readiness of a nation. In this respect, there is broad agree-
                                                                                                     ment on the major role played by the Israeli government
                                                                                                     in the emergence and development of today’s vibrant high-
                                                                                                     tech sector. Indeed public policies have been instrumental
                                                                                                     in fostering and complementing private sector initiatives,
                                                                                                     by laying the basis for an environment conducive to inno-
                                                                                                     vation, by means of both an appropriate regulatory frame-
                                                                                                     work, as well as infrastructure and ancillary services, such
                                                                                                     as education and financing. Furthermore, the government
Israel: Factors in the Emergence of an ICT Powerhouse
Figure 1: Government role in networked readiness in Israel



                                                                 Policy and Regulatory Environment
                                                                                                                     Rank/115

                                                                 Tertiary education.......................................25
                                                                 Administrative burden................................38
                                                                 Tax burden....................................................74
                                                                 Speed of new business registration ......46
                                                                 Ease of new business registration ..........10
                                                                 Effectiveness of law making.....................28
                                                                 Laws relating to ICT ...................................23
                                                                 Independence of judiciary ........................14
     Government Readiness                                                                                                           Government Usage
                                                                 Intellectual property protection ...............21
                                                   Rank/115                                                                                                                           Rank/115
                                                                 Legal framework to settle disputes .........23
                                                                 Property rights laws ...................................26
     Government prioritization of ICT ..............34                                                                              Success in ICT promotion .........................17
     Government procurement of ICT ...............5                                                                                 Availability of online services...................34
     Government ICT vision...............................19                                                                         ICT productivity ...........................................19
     Government R&D subsidies ........................7                                                                             ICT pervasiveness ......................................16
     E-Participation Index..................................30
     Web-Readiness Index................................20




Source: World Economic Forum, 2006.




has been at the forefront of ICT readiness, adoption, and                                            the most pressing needs of the time. An example is the array
                                                                                                                                                                                                     3
use.This is evident in the remarkably high positions Israel                                          of programs put in place by the government to encourage
occupies in the 2005–2006 Networked Readiness Index                                                  R&D at different points over the past two decades.
(NRI) for variables capturing government readiness and                                                    It was also market considerations which led Israeli
use, such as government procurement of ICT (5th), gov-                                               policymakers to concentrate on innovation and R&D.The
ernment R&D subsidies (7th), government ICT vision                                                   government realized very soon that Israeli comparative
(19th), success in ICT promotion (17th), ICT productivity                                            advantage resided in its qualified human capital rather
(19th), and the pervasiveness of ICT use (16th). Figure 1                                            than in its relatively scarce natural resources and land.The
gives a more general overview of the many government-                                                national market was too limited to sustain national indus-
related variables comprising the NRI, as well as of the                                              tries and the political situation precluded selling to neigh-
respective rankings for Israel in 2005–2006.                                                         bouring countries.Thus, the target inevitably had to be
     Government intervention has been remarkable for the                                             international, requiring a focus on innovative products
market-friendly spirit in which it has been conducted                                                which could be sold on international markets.These
from the outset. Until very recently, 2 the guiding principle                                        unfavorable structural parameters—market size and the
has been neutrality toward the private sector, with the                                              adverse political geography—served as catalysts to spur the
focus placed on remedying the market failures intrinsic in                                           development of an industry which ultimately would not
the generation of optimal levels of investment in innova-                                            depend for its success on these two factors.Thus, Israel
tion,3 rather than on “winner-picking” practices.The case                                            may well be an illustration, in reverse, of the “natural
of the Incubator Program, analyzed in detail later, is an                                            resource curse,” a concept popularized by Sachs and
excellent illustration of such an approach, since it has pro-                                        Warner (1995). Unable to tap into a plentiful extractable
vided, and still provides, financing and support to ventures                                         commodity, Israel has been forced to trade globally on its
in the early, pre-seed, stage, when the funding gap could                                            human capital endowment.
prevent many of them from moving from the idea phase
to projects attractive to private investors (see Figure 2).
                                                                                                     Education
     The market-friendly nature of government interven-
                                                                                                     As a small country with limited natural resources, the gov-
tion in Israel has resulted in considerable flexibility and
                                                                                                     ernment has long recognized the importance of investing
dynamism, permitting specific policies and instruments to
                                                                                                     in human capital for its development. Building on a strong
evolve over the years, and adapt to what were perceived as
Israel: Factors in the Emergence of an ICT Powerhouse

                                                        Figure 2: The investment gap: The role of the Incubators



                                                                                      Financing



                                                                    Public markets
                                                                    and own sales




                                                                           VC funds




                                                                   Investment Gap


                                                                                                                                                                 Company’s phase

                                                                                                  Idea         R&D         Initial sales     Large sales



                                                        Source: LabOne, 2005.




                                                        cultural heritage stressing excellence in education, univer-       1990s, industry leaders saw the need to retrain many of
            4
                                                        sities began to be established in the 1920s.With the               the graduates from the top universities in electronics and
                                                        founding of the state of Israel in 1948, the government            computer science.Task forces were created and a major
                                                        focused its attention and resources on the development of          boost was given by the universities to these particular
                                                        a first class educational and scientific research establishment.   areas. In other words, there have been fairly successful
                                                        By the early 1970s, there were half a dozen university-            attempts to shift the priorities of career workstreams with-
                                                        level centers of teaching and research: the Technion in            in the public university system to reflect the most pressing
                                                        Haifa, the Weizman Institute in Rehovot, Hebrew                    needs of industry, particularly the high-tech sector, because
                                                        University in Jerusalem, Ben Gurion University in Beer             of its perceived growth potential.
                                                        Sheba, and the Universities of Haifa and Tel Aviv.                      The informality of much human interaction, coupled
                                                              While traditional universities have not changed great-       with the educational and cultural emphasis on initiative
                                                        ly, with about 30 percent of students receiving degrees in         and risk-taking, may also have contributed to a more
                                                        sciences and engineering, the growing demand for higher            entrepreneurial culture. As with other world technology
                                                        education over the last 30 years has been met by liberaliz-        centers, the symbiosis between top research universities
                                                        ing higher education to allow private colleges, foreign            and dynamic industries has been so significant that Israel,
                                                        competition, and by recognizing degrees granted by                 despite its small size, has been ranked by the Global
                                                        technical schools accredited by the Ministry of Education.         Creativity Index—a measure of technology, talent, and tol-
                                                                                                                           erance—as the 14th most creative country in the world.4
                                                        Between 1980 and 2000, the percentage of the population
                                                        with at least 13 years of education rose from 21 to 41                  One unique feature of the educational process in
                                                        percent for Jewish citizens, and from 7 to 21 percent for          Israel is the significant catalytic role played by the military.
                                                        non-Jewish citizens. By 2000, degrees from non-traditional         With compulsory military service for both sexes, the mili-
                                                        colleges responding to market demand for business and              tary can select and train the brightest young people in
                                                        technical training represented 32 percent of the total             elite computing units, giving engineers considerable
                                                        (Khavul, 2005).This process provided the trained managers          responsibility for project management at a young age.
                                                        and workers needed by a rapidly expanding industry.                While Israel has not explicitly sought to commercialize
                                                        Furthermore, attempts have been made from time to time             military information technologies directly, the skills devel-
                                                        to reprioritize various professional streams within Israel’s       oped in young programmers have produced innovative
                                                        system of higher education. For instance, in the early             networks when they return to civilian life, creating strong
Israel: Factors in the Emergence of an ICT Powerhouse
Figure 3: Immigration to Israel, 1990–2004 (cumulated yearly values, thousands)




                      1,200
                                                                                                                                  1,136


                      1,000



                       800
          Thousands




                       600



                       400


                              200
                       200



                         0
                              1990   1991     1992   1993   1994   1995   1996   1997   1998   1999   2000   2001   2002   2003   2004




Source: Central Bureau of Statistics, 2005.




links between research teams in the military and in indus-                       As shown in Figure 3, almost one million refugees from
                                                                                                                                                 5
try. In addition, the Computer and Data Communications                           Eastern Europe arrived in Israel in the decade between
Network Center of the army continues to train software                           1989 and 1999, many with advanced degrees, technical
developers when they return to the unit for reserve duty                         training, and often bringing with them ambition, innova-
every year, while these experienced reservists teach their                       tive approaches to problem solving, and a strong scholastic
skills to new conscripts and other reservists. Nevertheless,                     tradition.This increased the population by a fifth and
there are not that many examples of innovations in the                           reinforced its general educational level.
military with clearly successful commercial applications—                               These immigrants included more than 100,000 scien-
firewall development by Check Point being the most                               tists and engineers, giving Israel by far the highest number
notable exception. Perhaps because of this, the majority of                      of engineers per capita in the world—140 per 10,000
Israeli high-tech companies see themselves as innovating                         employees, more than twice the level of the United States
for the global market.The research capabilities of the                           and Japan, the second and third ranking countries in the
                                                                                 list.5 This massive influx of manpower ensured the devel-
Israeli Defence Forces have been boosted by the existence
of rolling five-year budgets which facilitate product                            opment of the ICT industry until near the end of that
development and encourage them to take on substantial                            crucial decade. However, it did create a major challenge to
projects with a high-technological component.                                    absorb so many people, and the government set up
                                                                                 retraining and business development programs to facilitate
                                                                                 the process.With the rapid expansion of the industry,
Immigration                                                                      skilled immigrants were quickly integrated.This expansion
Immigration, welcomed and supported by the government,                           also attracted highly trained and experienced Israeli engi-
has always been a central feature of the development of                          neers, many of whom had previously emigrated to the
the State of Israel, as Jews from many countries returned                        US and Europe, but who now saw the opportunity to set
to their historic homeland, bringing diverse talents and                         up research centers for their foreign employers or startups
capacities, combined with the motivation and creativity of                       of their own in Israel.There are clear parallels in this area
a pioneering movement.The fortuitous coincidence of the                          between the experiences of Israel and Taiwan, as noted
collapse of the Soviet Union, combined with the explo-                           elsewhere in this Report.
sion of information and communications technologies in
the late 1980s gave the Israeli ICT industry a major boost.
Israel: Factors in the Emergence of an ICT Powerhouse

                                                        Culture                                                         egalitarian culture of openness, risk-taking and individual-
                                                                                                                        ism, which places a high value on one’s capacity to speak
                                                        In a globalizing world, international networking becomes
                                                                                                                        out, think freely, and constantly question. Unlike Asian
                                                        a key competitive advantage. For over a century, Israel
                                                                                                                        countries,6 where attempts to foster innovation are some-
                                                        has benefited from the influx of Jews from the diaspora,
                                                                                                                        times constrained by rigid, hierarchical structures which
                                                        characterized by well-established social networks, a strong
                                                                                                                        place a premium on obedience, rather than on challenging
                                                        sense of social responsibility, and the drive to establish
                                                                                                                        authority, human interactions in Israel are much more
                                                        themselves and succeed in their new homeland. More
                                                                                                                        relaxed (Harel, 2005). Indeed, senior managers in top
                                                        recently, this trend has been reinforced by the immigration
                                                                                                                        Israeli companies in the high-tech sector will often refer
                                                        of significant elements of the diaspora into Israel, bringing
                                                                                                                        to their strong preference for original thinkers, who will
                                                        skills and connections to international industries and
                                                                                                                        not hesitate to tell their bosses how wrong they are, and
                                                        networks.
                                                                                                                        why a particular alternative approach will be better.
                                                              For centuries, in the vast majority of European coun-
                                                                                                                        Conformity with and awe of one’s supervisors is neither
                                                        tries, Jews were systematically denied the opportunity to
                                                                                                                        encouraged, nor in keeping with the culture of independent
                                                        enjoy secular education, to enter the professions, or to
                                                                                                                        thinking and active intellectual dissent.
                                                        own land.This, no doubt, contributed to their ability
                                                                                                                             Another interesting feature of the Israeli high-tech
                                                        to remain self sufficient even in extremely inhospitable
                                                                                                                        scene is the acceptance of risk-taking.There is a relatively
                                                        conditions.Their new-found freedom in Israel, coupled
                                                                                                                        large number of serial entrepreneurs, people who start up
                                                        with the long tradition of frank and forceful Biblical argu-
                                                                                                                        new high-technology ventures, develop them, take them
                                                        mentation—one of the most highly valued “occupations”
                                                                                                                        to the market, and then sell them, before starting the same
                                                        open to Jews in the past—has given rise to a remarkably




                                                          Box 1: Peace dividend

                                                          The hoped-for peace process with Syria and the                • The further expansion of the vast potential of the
                                                          Palestinians, intended to establish credible and lasting        tourism sector, where activity has tended to closely
            6
                                                          security arrangements with these neighbors, would               reflect the underlying security situation, as illustrated
                                                          likely have a positive influence on Israel’s long-term          by the large losses in the sector as a result of terror-
                                                          economic outlook and its ability to sustain high growth         ist attacks and the second intifada. Israel received
                                                          rates. The following might be considered some of the            some 2 million tourists in 2005, a 26 percent rise
                                                          most obvious benefits of peace in the Middle East:              over the previous year, but still small when compared
                                                                                                                          to 65 million in Spain and 15 million in Portugal.
                                                          • The scope it would provide for a medium-term
                                                                                                                          Making generous allowances for population size and
                                                            restructuring of budgetary expenditures, diminishing
                                                                                                                          other factors of scale, and with appropriate invest-
                                                            over time the burden of defense and the mainte-
                                                                                                                          ments and upgrading in the facilities supporting the
                                                            nance of the associated military establishment.
                                                                                                                          sector, there is no reason why the numbers of tourists
                                                            Annual defense expenditures have amounted to
                                                                                                                          could not double within a few years, with beneficial
                                                            some 9–10 percent of GDP in recent years (down
                                                                                                                          effects on growth and the balance of payments.
                                                            from 25 percent of GDP in the early 1980s), com-
                                                            pared to 2.5 percent in the EU and some 3 percent           • With its highly educated labor force, its close trade
                                                            in the United States. Peace would permit further              links with the EU and the United States and the
                                                            spending cuts over the next several years, releasing          remarkable expansion of high-tech industries seen in
                                                            resources which could be allocated in other ways,             recent years, Israel is singularly well positioned to
                                                            particularly in the area of infrastructure, where Israel      become a leading center for a broad range of multi-
                                                            suffers from a number of shortcomings, in compari-            national corporations, intent on expanding their activ-
                                                            son with EU members with similar levels of per capi-          ities in a post-peace settlement environment.
                                                            ta income.                                                  • Last but not least, peace with Israel’s neighbors
                                                          • The coming on stream of a number of potentially               would be a permanent boost to the confidence of
                                                            large infrastructure projects (water works, electricity       foreign investors, as economic agents would be able
                                                            generation, and railroads) in the border areas with           to view decision making in a medium- to long-term
                                                            Syria and Lebanon could have potentially lasting effects      perspective, characterized by less uncertainty about
                                                            on investment demand. Beyond this, peace would                the political environment and greater faith in the sta-
                                                            also be expected to boost intra-regional trade in the         bility of the country’s policies and institutions.
                                                            Middle East and cross-border direct investment.
Israel: Factors in the Emergence of an ICT Powerhouse
cycle again with a fresh idea. Others have failed in the         of a venture, addressing in this way the market failures
early stages but, driven by a philosophy that “failure is not    inherent in the preliminary stages of investment.
disgraceful if you fail honestly,” have started over again,           LECI deliberately introduced a bias in favor of foreign
sometimes more than once.                                        investors, which took the form of preferential tax treatment
     It is worth asking if there may be a cultural dimen-        with respect to national investors. It was thought that a
sion to the difficulty Israeli companies have in command-        favorable tax regime and the relative abundance of well-
ing a world presence in terms of market capitalization.          trained engineers and scientists would strengthen the
Possibly, the atmosphere of a small, innovative or congenial     attractiveness of Israel as a location for multinationals.The
community, in which human relationships and independ-            policy was based on a specific rationale: multinationals
ent thinking are important, may outweigh the advantages          would not only create employment in Israel, but they
of large-scale institutionalization. At the same time, it may    would also bring with them the technology, know-how,
well be that the emphasis on individual initiative and           operating procedures, managerial skills and exporting
improvisation makes management less of a strength. As            channels that the nascent Israeli industry needed. In other
important as the subject may be, it is outside the scope of      words, the idea was to leverage the spillovers deriving
this study to explore in greater detail the role of culture in   from the operations of the multinationals in Israel for the
the development of a spirit of entrepreneurship and tech-        development of the local high tech industry.
nological innovation.                                                 The government’s strategy worked well: international
                                                                 investors flocked to Israel during the 1960s and 1970s,
                                                                 including high-tech giants such as IBM, Motorola, and
Investment incentives and capital market reforms                 Intel, and were followed by many others. Figure 4 shows
One major area of government intervention has been in            the evolution of FDI over the 1991–2005 period.
the policies and measures encouraging domestic and for-               This process has been facilitated by a number of
eign capital investment in Israel.The investment incentive       reforms in the capital markets which have considerably
package had its origins in the Law for the Encouragement of      improved the efficiency of, and competition within, Israel’s
Capital Investment (LECI), adopted in 1959 to attract pri-       financial system.These have mainly involved deregulation
vate investment—especially in the most remote and least          and the elimination of a host of administrative restrictions
developed areas of the country 7 —and to foster business         and interventions, and the welcome reform of the capital        7
initiatives, employment, and exports.                            market which centered on the separation of the various
      The law, revised on a number of occasions to take          funds from the banks. Reserve requirements, which had
into account new technological and economic develop-             ranged well over 30 percent in the late 1980s, had fallen
ments,8 did not explicitly favor the high-tech or any            to an average of 4 percent by the end of the 1990s.This,
specific industrial sector,9 but, rather, ventures with high     in turn, contributed to a marked narrowing of interest rate
value-added and marketing capabilities in local and inter-       spreads. Undue segmentation of the credit markets was
national markets.The importance given to both new and            sharply reduced; for instance, the share of mortgage credit
existing projects varied according to the specific zone,         allocated by the government fell from 70 percent in the
whereas the contribution to exports had to be more               mid 1980s to less than 25 percent by the end of the
substantial for the central areas, zones C and B, than for       1990s. Even sharper drops took place with respect to
the peripheral one, zone A, for which the contribution to        other forms of credit.
local employment was valued more.Those enterprises,                   The reforms also saw a sharp reduction in the share
both Israeli and foreign-owned, which were deemed                of obligatory investments in government bonds by pension
eligible by the Israeli Investment Centre—a department           and provident funds. Provident funds, the largest institu-
of the Ministry of Industry,Trade and Labor in charge of         tional investor in the Israeli economy, were allowed to
the law’s administration—gained the status of “Approved          invest a much larger share of their holdings in equities and
Enterprises” or “Beneficiary Enterprises.”They were thus         other financial assets. Alongside these efforts aimed at
in a position to benefit from government grants—up to            deregulation, there was also significant streamlining and
24 percent of tangible fixed assets—and/or tax benefits in       modernization of the stock market, which emerged as one
various forms, depending on the geographical location            of the most technologically advanced in the world, with
and the percentage of foreign ownership.                         continuous trading and short clearing periods, against a
      Beyond the stated goal of LECI to promote private          background of fairly sound securities legislation.There are
initiative and internationally competitive products, the         ongoing efforts to broaden the range of financial instruments
market-friendly character of the law can be seen in its          offered to the public, to ensure equal tax treatment of dif-
attempt to provide institutional underpinnings to the ini-       ferent classes of investors and/or savings instruments, and
tiatives of private investors, and to share with them the        to encourage more long-term savings.The modernization
higher risk associated with the development or expansion         of the financial sector is thought to have played a strong
Israel: Factors in the Emergence of an ICT Powerhouse

                                                        Figure 4: Foreign Direct Investment in Israel, 1991–2004 (inflows, US$ millions)




                                                                               6,000



                                                                               5,000



                                                                               4,000
                                                                US$ millions




                                                                               3,000



                                                                               2,000



                                                                               1,000



                                                                                   0
                                                                                       1991   1992   1993   1994   1995   1996   1997      1998     1999      2000     2001         2002   2003   2004



                                                        Source: UNCTAD, 2006.




                                                        supportive role in the development of the ICT industry.                         Table 1: Multinational companies with R&D centers in
            8
                                                                                                                                        Israel (partial list)
                                                        To the extent that these reforms were driven by a desire
                                                        to improve market efficiency, they made it easier for
                                                        emerging companies to obtain funding under more favor-
                                                                                                                                          Alcatel                                     Kollmorgen Servotronix
                                                        able circumstances. Parallel progress in bringing inflation                       Analog Devices                              Marvell Semiconductor
                                                        levels down to international levels also contributed to the                       AMCC                                        Microsoft
                                                        creation of a more stable macroeconomic environment,                              Avaya                                       Motorola
                                                                                                                                          BMC Software                                National Semiconductor
                                                        conducive to private sector activity in a more predictable
                                                                                                                                          Boston Scientific                           Oracle
                                                        climate.
                                                                                                                                          Broadcom                                    Orgenics
                                                              Foreign investors in the ICT sector have typically                          Computer Associates                         Paramic Technology
                                                        used one of two options to establish a presence in Israel:                        CEVA                                        Pfizer
                                                        they have either set up operations directly, or adopted a                         Cisco                                       Phillips
                                                                                                                                          Conexant                                    QUALCOMM
                                                        strategy of mergers with, or friendly take-overs of, small
                                                                                                                                          Freescale Semiconductor                     Samsung
                                                        local companies. As shown in Table 1, as regards operations
                                                                                                                                          GE Medical Systems                          SAP
                                                        carried out in Israel, foreign investors have placed the
                                                                                                                                          HP (including HP Labs)                      Siemens
                                                        emphasis on the installation of research and development                          IBM                                         Silicon Graphics
                                                        facilities,10 taking advantage of Israel’s ample supply of                        Infineon                                    Sun Microsystems
                                                        highly skilled engineers, and its solid track record for                          Intel                                       SunGard
                                                                                                                                          Interpharm                                  Texas Instruments
                                                        innovation and problem solving. In this regard, some have
                                                                                                                                          KLA-Tencor                                  Veritas Software
                                                        argued that the above competitive advantages have been a
                                                        mixed blessing for the Israeli economy, in that research
                                                                                                                                        Source: Israel Venture Association, 2005.
                                                        facilities do not generally make the same contribution to
                                                        job creation and exports as do manufacturing plants.They
                                                        also act as a drain on limited Israeli brain power,11 which
                                                        could otherwise be used by local firms.
                                                              The above considerations notwithstanding, the
                                                        contribution made by multinationals to the development
                                                        of the Israeli high-tech industry is generally viewed as
Israel: Factors in the Emergence of an ICT Powerhouse
positive, given the many spillovers to the local economy,        national labor force, improve the balance of payments, and
such as easier access to the international financial and         provide grants, loans, and other incentives.
business markets, improved export channels, and the trans-             The OCS together with the LEIRD, which it admin-
fer of know-how and managing/marketing skills from the           isters, constitute the two main instruments for implemen-
personnel of multinationals to local companies.                  tation and administration of government policy in R&D,
      In addition to creating state-of-the-art R&D centers,      and have shown a remarkable degree of flexibility over the
companies such as Intel and Motorola established manu-           years, and the capacity to adapt and expand their scope in
facturing facilities, which rapidly became some of the           response to changing technological and economic priori-
largest private employers in Israel. At last count, Intel        ties. As shown in Figure 5, the programs and interventions
was employing more than 6,000 workers at several plants          of the OCS take in the whole spectrum of the innovation
scattered around the country (Haifa, Jerusalem, Kiryat Gat,      process, trying to make up for market failures, when it
Petach Tikva, and Yakum), and has developed into one of          appears necessary to overcome potential bottlenecks in
the top Israeli exporters, with a volume of US$1.6 billion       private initiative/funding.
in 2003, equivalent to 13 percent of total Israeli electronic          Figure 6 gives a general overview of several programs
exports.The linkages between Intel and Israel are particu-       which are currently conducted by the OCS, together with
larly strong, as evidenced by a rapid ramping up of multi-       their respective budgets. As shown in the figure, the OCS
billion dollar investments, mainly to expand capacity at         programs can be either national or international, and they
existing plants, some of which have become world leaders         cover pre-seed activities as well as generic and competitive
of research and innovation.                                      R&D. It is worth mentioning that the evolution of OCS
                                                                 programs shows how dynamically the law has been
                                                                 applied.
Government support for R&D                                             Indeed, the strategy has responded well to signals
As a coherent body of policies and programs, government          coming from the market and to political priorities, adapting
support of R&D began somewhat later than the policy of           and/or adopting new programs where appropriate.
incentives to private investors. By then, the economy and              Looking at the composition of national programs,
the flow of immigrants had slowed, after two decades of          support for industrial R&D is by far the most important,
strong growth.The need to define a new development               in terms of budgetary allocations: US$300 million per          9
strategy was seen as a priority. Building on considerations      year. Priority is generally given to those projects which
similar to those which had motivated the policy on invest-       result in know-how and technology, and which can lead
ment incentives—notably, the abundance of a highly               either to new products and processes, or to substantial
skilled labor force, a culture of technological and scientific   improvements of existing ones. Under the program, quali-
excellence, and the scarcity of natural resources—the gov-       fying companies can apply for government grants, which
ernment decided to actively promote the development of           normally cover 20 to 50 percent13 of the approved R&D
a science-based sector by subsidizing private-sector R&D         expenditure budget. A Research Committee, chaired by
projects.                                                        the Chief Scientist, is in charge of administering the pro-
      A first step in this direction was the creation, in the    gram, notably by evaluating the eligibility of projects, and
late 1960s, of the Office of the Chief Scientist (OCS), at       defining the conditions for approving the grants according
the Ministry of Industry,Trade and Labor.The OCS                 to the general terms set out in the 1984 law. In this
administers and grants government funds for R&D, and, in         respect, eligible projects should be executed by the apply-
the words of Dr. Eli Opper, the current Chief Scientist,         ing company itself, and although the provisions on the
“operates on the premise that the business sector alone is       non-transferability abroad of both know-how and manu-
incapable of carrying on an optimal level of R&D for             facturing rights resulting from the R&D projects have
market growth…and that under such conditions govern-             recently been relaxed, transferability is still subject to
ment involvement through support of industrial R&D is            clearly defined costs and conditions.
warranted.” 12                                                         If the products and processes resulting from the gov-
      Another milestone was the adoption of the Law for          ernment-sponsored project are commercially successful,
the Encouragement of Industrial R&D (LEIRD) in 1984,             the company must pay the government back royalties,
which still represents the fundamental legal framework for       which correspond to a defined percentage of the total
government support to private industrial R&D.This law is         annual product sales.The annual budget for industrial
not fundamentally different in spirit from the LECI              R&D research covers an average of 1,000 projects,
(which focuses on fostering capital investment) and calls        implemented by 500 companies.
for the development of a science-intensive, export-oriented            Another important program is called Magnet, put in
industry, able to accommodate the expansion of the               place in 1993 to strengthen the linkages between industry
                                                                 —a fragmented landscape whose entities seemed to
Israel: Factors in the Emergence of an ICT Powerhouse

                                                        Figure 5: OCS support for programs in the innovation process




                                                                    Risk




                                                                                        Applied academic
                                                                                            research


                                                                                                                                                            Magnet
                                                                                                         Nofar


                                                                                                                   Tnufa                         EU FP6
                                                                                                                                                                                   Competitive
                                                                                                                                                                                      R&D

                                                                                                                Incubators
                                                                                                                                                                                              International programs
                                                                                                                                                     Seed fund

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      Proximity to the market




                                                        Source: MATIMOP, 2005.




10                                                      Figure 6: Programs and activities of the Office of the Chief Scientist (US$ millions)




                                                                                                    Pre-Seed                                                       Generic R&D                                                 Competitive R&D


                                                                                 Technological incubators .....30.0                    Magnet.................................................................40.0   Industrial R&D projects....300.0
                                                                 National




                                                                                 Tnufa...........................................3.0   Magneton ..............................................................5.5    Seed fund...................................1.0*
                                                                                 Nofar...........................................2.2




                                                                                                                                       ISERD (European 6th Framework                                                 MATIMOP
                                                                 International




                                                                                                                                         Programme) ................................................4,000.0          Eureka .....................................16.0
                                                                                                                                                                                                                     Bi-national funds.................>23.0**
                                                                                                                                                                                                                     Bi-national agreements




                                                        * Over two years.
                                                        ** Total sum available for the five bi-national R&D funds.
                                                        Source: State of Israel, 2005.
Israel: Factors in the Emergence of an ICT Powerhouse
struggle to sustain the cost of developing cutting-edge            returning Israelis who had succeeded in Silicon Valley and
technology—and the largely untapped first-class research           other technology centers, enticing them either to set up
capabilities of Israeli universities. Under the Magnet             R&D centers for the companies they worked for, or to
program, consortia of industrial firms and at least one            establish their own high-tech startups. As a result, in 2004,
academic institution are entitled to multi-year grants             Israel ranked sixth after the United States, Japan,Taiwan,
of three to five years, for up to 66 percent of the total          Switzerland, and Finland in the number of US patents
approved R&D budget (with no royalty payment) to                   granted per capita. It is noteworthy that a much higher
develop pre-competitive generic technologies.The con-              proportion of international patents originating in Israel
sortium commits to making the resulting technologies               are held by individuals and universities rather than
available to any local interested party at a moderate price.       corporations, as is the case in other countries, such as the
In 2005, there were 31 consortia.                                  United States (Khavul, 2005).
      On the other hand, the international program of                    In 1991, to promote business startups, and particularly
the OCS responds to a different set of considerations.The          to assist the new wave of immigrants from the former
relative strength of the Israeli high-tech sector lies in the      Soviet Union of the early 1990s, the OCS initiated the
R&D phase. Its weaknesses, however, stem from lack of              incubator program to enable first time entrepreneurs with
expertise and skills in international marketing, due to the        innovative ideas to develop them into a business. Although
country’s geographical remoteness,14 and the small size of         the program was initially targeted at the many engineers
its companies.These two factors suggest the importance of          and scientists coming from the former Soviet Union,
establishing links and formal mechanisms for cooperation           many of whom had remarkable skills and research potential,
with companies in the target markets. In that spirit, the          but who lacked the know-how required for commercial
fostering of contacts between national and foreign compa-          success—knowledge of Hebrew and English, of methods
nies leading to joint R&D, manufacturing, and marketing            to access funding, and familiarity with market economy
has been an important focus of government R&D policy.              practices— it was, and still is, open to all.The basic ration-
Many supporting programs have been established to                  ale of these two programs is to “polish the diamond,” that
promote this goal, among which the most notable are                is, to take selected entrepreneurs with innovative ideas
bi-national funds (such as the Israel-US BIRD                      with export potential through to first round investments
Foundation), parallel funding agreements, and participation        in product development, to the point where they can              11
in the European agreements offering partnering services            stand on their own, find strategic partners, and raise
(EUREKA and the Sixth Framework Program for R&D,                   venture capital on the market.
known as FP6).The OCS is assisted in the implementation                  The incubator initiatives have enabled the government
and administration of these agreements by MATIMOP,                 to bridge the funding gap present at the early, risky stage
which was created to serve as the national hub for                 of the realization of promising ideas.With a budget of
encouraging the participation of Israeli enterprises in            US$30 million, a total of 24 technology incubators have
bilateral/multilateral programs for industrial R&D.                been set up throughout the country, each conducting an
                                                                   average of about 10 projects, with an average life time of
                                                                   two to three years.The average budget of each project is
Innovation: Technology incubators                                  approximately US$450,000 per year. Some 85 percent of
Successful innovation in technology requires two funda-            the funds are provided by the government in the form of
mental steps, the intellectual and the financial. In Israel,       grants and soft loans, with the remainder provided by a
the generation of ideas has always been prolific. However,         venture capital firm, the incubator, or the entrepreneur, in
the traditionally high level of research in the universities       exchange for a share of equity in the company.The incu-
and institutes has resulted in discoveries, which, in general,     bator’s investment and support allow the new venture to
were not rapidly transmitted to industry through mecha-            develop and prove its technology, to file patents, undertake
nisms for the commercialization of university inventions.          market validation, develop a business model, attract the
Indeed, it was the Magnet program, which later sought to           first customers, add key personnel to the management
strengthen the avenues of collaboration between industry           team, prepare professionally for the approach to venture
and the academic community.This was paralleled by the              capital firms, and gain credibility by being supported by a
importance of the military, particularly the army’s                reputable VC. Figure 7 shows how initial government
Computer and Data Communications Network Centre,                   support acts as a stepping stone for private investment.
which has been an incubator of computer and software                     Beginning in 2001, 13 incubators have been privatized,
development for decades.The rapid return of its staff to           taking advantage of the growing influx of venture capital
civilian life after military service facilitates the transfer of   into the country since the mid 1990s, such as LabOne in
their innovative approaches to software design to the pri-         Tel Aviv, now jointly owned by a venture capital fund and
vate sector.The government also created incentives for             the Tel Aviv Economic Development Authority.
Israel: Factors in the Emergence of an ICT Powerhouse

                                                        Figure 7: Government vs. private sector investment in the incubator program (US$ millions)




                                                                                1,200


                                                                                                                Private investment accumulation
                                                                                1,000
                                                                                                                Government support accumulation

                                                                                 800
                                                                 US$ millions




                                                                                 600



                                                                                 400



                                                                                 200



                                                                                   0
                                                                                        1991   1992   1993   1994   1995   1996   1997   1998     1999   2000   2001   2002   2003   2004   2005



                                                        Source: Office of the Chief Scientist, 2005.




                                                             There are no plans at present to expand the number                            country (Dar, 2005). Startups require venture capital to
12
                                                        of incubators.The authorities feel that the scope of the                           help them through the product development phase.
                                                        present program is appropriate, given the number of                                     In order to address one of the most pressing market
                                                        promising ideas which can reasonably be expected to                                failures for many years in the Israeli financial system, the
                                                        appear at any given time. Instead, they have sought to                             Israeli government played a direct role in creating a
                                                        monitor the program to ensure strict quality control and                           remarkably market-friendly venture capital industry.The
                                                        high standards of excellence.The incubator program has                             lack of a well-developed national capital market was one
                                                        become the number one producer of startups in Israel. In                           of the most serious hindrances to the proper functioning
                                                        2000, there were 2,000 startups, five times the number a                           and expansion of Israeli industry, a deficiency which
                                                        decade earlier.Today Israel has the world’s highest density                        government grants could only partially make up for.
                                                        of high-tech startups, nearly 2,500 in a country of only 6                              In 1990, Israel had two venture capital funds, manag-
                                                        million people (Harel, 2005). Moreover, the success rate of                        ing US$59 million. In 1992, the OCS established the
                                                        incubator startups is 50 percent, measured as the ability to                       Yozma program, to trigger the creation of a venture
                                                        raise private funding to allow the company to operate for                          capital market in the country.The government provided
                                                        at least two years.This figure compares with only 10 per-                          US$100 million to encourage international venture capital
                                                        cent for startups in the United States and for Israeli                             to enter Israel, invest in Israeli high-tech firms, and men-
                                                        dot.com startups (Trajtenberg, 2001).                                              tor local venture capital talent.To match the government
                                                                                                                                           investment, ten funds were established by international
                                                                                                                                           venture capital and industrial firms, headed by Israeli
                                                        Venture capital                                                                    managers. Private investors participating in the funds
                                                        Technological creativity can only lead to successful busi-                         were offered the option to buy back Yozma’s shares at a
                                                        ness development if there is an adequate flow of venture                           predetermined price within five years. In this way the
                                                        capital, and in this area Israel has achieved enviable                             government attracted eminent international investors and,
                                                        momentum. Not only does the country have the highest                               together with their funds, their much-needed expertise.
                                                        concentration of high-tech companies in the world after                            Yozma was created in a market-friendly spirit, with a fixed
                                                        Silicon Valley, but it is a world leader in startups, which                        duration of seven years, at the end of which it was priva-
                                                        contribute a higher share to GDP than in any other                                 tized, with the government selling out its interest to the
                                                                                                                                           private sector. By 2000 there were over 50 venture capital
Israel: Factors in the Emergence of an ICT Powerhouse
Figure 8: Capital raised by Israeli high-tech companies, 1999–2005 (US$ millions)




                         1,200
                                                                                ■ Financing rounds without Israeli participation
                                                                                ■ Foreign and other entities
                         1,000
                                                                                ■ Israeli VCs


                          800
          US$ millions




                          600



                          400



                          200



                            0
                                 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4
                                     1999        2000        2001        2002          2003           2004            2005




Source: IVC Research Centre, 2005.




firms that raised US$9.4 billion. In that year, Israel raised              Figure 8, in 2004, Israeli high-tech companies raised more
                                                                                                                                           13
US$600 per capita in venture capital, compared with                        capital than any country in Europe (Harel, 2005), with
US$30 per capita in Europe, making it the most attractive                  almost US$1.5 billion invested in startups and the number
technology market outside the United States.The level of                   of venture capital transactions reaching 10 percent of those
Israeli domestic venture capital as a percentage of GDP                    in the United States. (Dar, 2005).
was the highest in the world. In addition, Israel ranked                        The leading areas attracting investments are commu-
fifth in informal investment (Khavul, 2005). Much of this                  nications and networking, and software, with Israel now a
financing was for relatively small investments in startups.                world leader in security technologies and chip design.
      Over and above government policy and funding,                        Figure 9 illustrates Israel’s open export-oriented economy
multinational corporations have also played a significant                  in the global ICT marketplace, and how venture capital
role through strategic partnerships, which included design                 investments in Israel have placed on the NASDAQ Index.
centers, marketing channels, eventually buying companies                   The perspective is clearly on the future, and since 2001,
to provide an exit for the venture capital (Oron, 2005).                   more new companies were established in the life sciences
      Today, venture capital has become global and most                    than in any other sector.
investments are multinational.The Israel Venture                                As seen in Figure 10, the success of the venture capi-
Association (IVA) is active throughout the world, publiciz-                tal process in Israel is illustrated by the fact that, in the
ing opportunities and raising venture capital for Israeli                  decade 1995–2004, 359 Israeli high-tech companies with a
companies (Harel, 2005). Silicon Valley Bank established                   total value of US$29 billion were acquired or merged
branches in England and India in 2004, and in China and                    (Harel, 2005).Venture capital investments contributed to a
Israel in 2005 (Brown, 2004).There are now some 50                         40 percent increase in GDP and 15 percent increase in
Israeli venture capital firms managing over US$12 billion                  employment, and accounted for 50 percent of exports and
drawn from the United States, Europe, and the Far East.                    65 percent of foreign investment over the same period
133 foreign venture capital firms invested in more than                    (Harel, 2005).
one company in Israel during 2000–2004. As outlined in
Israel: Factors in the Emergence of an ICT Powerhouse

                                                        Figure 9: Investment of VC funds in Israeli startups and the NASDAQ Index, by quarter, 1997–2005



                                                                               1,200                                                                                                                       5,000

                                                                                                                                                                                                           4,500
                                                                                                                                                                    VC funds (left axis)
                                                                               1,000
                                                                                                                                                                    NASDAQ (right axis)                    4,000

                                                                                                                                                                                                           3,500
                                                                                800
                                                                                                                                                                                                           3,000
                                                             US$ million




                                                                                                                                                                                                                     Index value
                                                                                600                                                                                                                        2,500

                                                                                                                                                                                                           2,000
                                                                                400
                                                                                                                                                                                                           1,500

                                                                                                                                                                                                           1,000
                                                                                200
                                                                                                                                                                                                           500

                                                                                    0                                                                                                                      0
                                                                                          1997      1998            1999           2000          2001      2002          2003              2004   2005




                                                        Source: Israel Venture Association, 2005.




14                                                      Figure 10: Deals in which Israeli high-tech companies were acquired or merged, 1994–2004




                                                                               70                                                                                                                          18,000
                                                                                                        Number of deals (left axis)
                                                                                                        Total value (right axis)                                                                           16,000
                                                                                                                                                                                                  58
                                                                               60
                                                                                                                                                                                                           14,000
                                                                               50
                                                                                                                                                                                                           12,000
                                                             Number of deals




                                                                                                                                                                                                                    US$ millions

                                                                               40                                                                                                                          10,000

                                                                                                                                                                                                           8,000
                                                                               30

                                                                                                                                                                                                           6,000
                                                                               20
                                                                                                                                                                                                   1,834




                                                                                                                                                                                                           4,000
                                                                               10
                                                                                                                                                                                                           2,000

                                                                                0                                                                                                                          0
                                                                                        1995     1996        1997          1998           1999      2000     2001         2002         2003       2004




                                                        Source: Israel Venture Association, 2005.
Israel: Factors in the Emergence of an ICT Powerhouse
Box 2: The role of ICT in boosting the growth of the overall economy

                                                                          1996–20044—but total factor productivity declined for
The development of the high-tech sector in Israel has
been an impressive success story. The main indicators                     many sectors, such as retailing and business services
for the last 15 years speak for themselves: the sector                    (–3.3 percent) or the construction sector (–2 percent).
grew at an average annual rate of 16 percent in the                       Moreover, according to Bank of Israel figures, between
1990s, expanding from 4 percent of GDP in 1990 to 14                      1994 and 2003, the bulk of investment went to the
percent of GDP in 2000, and accounting for one third                      electronics sector, which rose at an annual average
of total GDP growth.1 Software exports skyrocketed                        growth rate of 20 percent, compared to 5 percent in
from US$135 million in 1992—roughly equivalent to                         traditional industries—such as food, textiles and so
                                                                          on—and no growth for the agricultural sector.5
total citrus exports—to US$3 billion in 2004 (see Figure
11), some 7 percent of total Israeli merchandise                               Such trends also had a negative impact on the
exports. ICT products represented 21 percent of total                     patterns of income distribution in Israel. During the
industrial products in 2004.2 Of the ratio of R&D                         1990s, the income of the highest decile rose in line
expenditure to GDP—4.6 percent in 2004—close to 80                        with GDP growth, while the income of the middle and
percent was allocated to ICT R&D,3 among the highest                      lower deciles remained more or less unchanged,6
in the world. Beyond these impressive indicators, the                     reflecting a large intra-sector wage disparity between
significance of the Israeli high-tech sector can be fully                 the high-tech sector and the rest of the economy.
appreciated when one considers that some of the                           Indeed the average annual salary bill for the high-tech
most important IT breakthrough innovations of the last                    industry in 2002 was higher than the equivalent bill for
years have been developed in Israel, from the latest                      the mixed high-tech industries, the mixed traditional
Intel processors used in laptop and desktop comput-                       technological industries and the traditional technological
                                                                          industries.7 These observations have led a number of
ers, to the disk on key, ICQ, and firewall technolo-
gies—all Israeli inventions.                                              observers to suggest the existence of a “dual economy,”
     Nevertheless, if one looks at the overall evolution                  in which the high-tech sector continues to boom while
                                                                          the rest of the economy lags behind.8
of the Israeli economy, the picture becomes more
mixed. Not only did the growth rate of the rest of the                         This, in turn, raises questions about the growth
                                                                                                                                        15
economy not match that of the high-tech sector—                           and competitiveness prospects of the Israeli economy
2.3 percent versus 10.5 percent for the period                            over the medium to long term, given that the high-tech

                                                                                                                            (cont’d.)


Figure 11: Exports of software and citrus (US$ millions)




                                                  Software
                     3,000
                                                  Citrus

                     2,500



                     2,000
      US$ millions




                     1,500



                     1,000



                      500



                        0
                             1992   1993   1994   1995     1996   1997   1998   1999   2000   2001   2002   2003   2004




Source: MATIMOP, 2005.
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Israel complete web

  • 1. Soumitra Dutta Israel Augusto Lopez-Claros Irene Mia Factors in the Emergence of an ICT Powerhouse
  • 2. Israel: Factors in the Emergence of an ICT Powerhouse Introduction1 Israel: Factors in the Emergence It has been the Israeli government’s explicit goal to position of an ICT Powerhouse their country at the center of the knowledge economy, but the process has been neither fully planned nor completely organic.There has been close collaboration AUGUSTO LOPEZ-CLAROS, World Economic Forum between government and business, with government IRENE MIA, World Economic Forum involvement focused and limited, ready to withdraw as soon as the private sector was able to continue on its own. This case study highlights the important role of the government in the emergence of Israel as a high-tech power, encouraging and supporting the capacity of the private sector to compete in international markets. Significant components of government action have taken the form of a) heavy investment in education, reinforced by large-scale immigration to provide the necessary human capital, b) effective investment incentives favoring foreign investors to build industrial momentum, c) invest- ment in R&D in a proportion of GDP (4.6 percent) higher than that of any other industrialized country, and d) incubator and venture capital programs to convert research into cutting edge businesses. Alongside these helpful interventions, providing a backdrop for the development of information and com- munication technologies, Israel has also made important strides in laying the foundation for macroeconomic stabil- ity. Not only has inflation fallen sharply from the runaway levels seen in the mid 1980s, but wide-ranging reforms 2 have been put in place aimed at reducing the scale of the public sector and the role of the state in the allocation of resources, and, more generally, at supporting the modern- ization of the economy. This paper will outline the role of the Israeli govern- ment in supporting ICT development, and the influence of education, culture, immigration, and security issues on Israel’s achievements.This is followed by a detailed discus- sion of the role of government in investment and R&D, and the relationship between the ICT sector and Israel’s overall economy. The role of government Recent Israeli economic history is an excellent showcase of the key contribution efficient government intervention can make to the overall innovation potential and ICT readiness of a nation. In this respect, there is broad agree- ment on the major role played by the Israeli government in the emergence and development of today’s vibrant high- tech sector. Indeed public policies have been instrumental in fostering and complementing private sector initiatives, by laying the basis for an environment conducive to inno- vation, by means of both an appropriate regulatory frame- work, as well as infrastructure and ancillary services, such as education and financing. Furthermore, the government
  • 3. Israel: Factors in the Emergence of an ICT Powerhouse Figure 1: Government role in networked readiness in Israel Policy and Regulatory Environment Rank/115 Tertiary education.......................................25 Administrative burden................................38 Tax burden....................................................74 Speed of new business registration ......46 Ease of new business registration ..........10 Effectiveness of law making.....................28 Laws relating to ICT ...................................23 Independence of judiciary ........................14 Government Readiness Government Usage Intellectual property protection ...............21 Rank/115 Rank/115 Legal framework to settle disputes .........23 Property rights laws ...................................26 Government prioritization of ICT ..............34 Success in ICT promotion .........................17 Government procurement of ICT ...............5 Availability of online services...................34 Government ICT vision...............................19 ICT productivity ...........................................19 Government R&D subsidies ........................7 ICT pervasiveness ......................................16 E-Participation Index..................................30 Web-Readiness Index................................20 Source: World Economic Forum, 2006. has been at the forefront of ICT readiness, adoption, and the most pressing needs of the time. An example is the array 3 use.This is evident in the remarkably high positions Israel of programs put in place by the government to encourage occupies in the 2005–2006 Networked Readiness Index R&D at different points over the past two decades. (NRI) for variables capturing government readiness and It was also market considerations which led Israeli use, such as government procurement of ICT (5th), gov- policymakers to concentrate on innovation and R&D.The ernment R&D subsidies (7th), government ICT vision government realized very soon that Israeli comparative (19th), success in ICT promotion (17th), ICT productivity advantage resided in its qualified human capital rather (19th), and the pervasiveness of ICT use (16th). Figure 1 than in its relatively scarce natural resources and land.The gives a more general overview of the many government- national market was too limited to sustain national indus- related variables comprising the NRI, as well as of the tries and the political situation precluded selling to neigh- respective rankings for Israel in 2005–2006. bouring countries.Thus, the target inevitably had to be Government intervention has been remarkable for the international, requiring a focus on innovative products market-friendly spirit in which it has been conducted which could be sold on international markets.These from the outset. Until very recently, 2 the guiding principle unfavorable structural parameters—market size and the has been neutrality toward the private sector, with the adverse political geography—served as catalysts to spur the focus placed on remedying the market failures intrinsic in development of an industry which ultimately would not the generation of optimal levels of investment in innova- depend for its success on these two factors.Thus, Israel tion,3 rather than on “winner-picking” practices.The case may well be an illustration, in reverse, of the “natural of the Incubator Program, analyzed in detail later, is an resource curse,” a concept popularized by Sachs and excellent illustration of such an approach, since it has pro- Warner (1995). Unable to tap into a plentiful extractable vided, and still provides, financing and support to ventures commodity, Israel has been forced to trade globally on its in the early, pre-seed, stage, when the funding gap could human capital endowment. prevent many of them from moving from the idea phase to projects attractive to private investors (see Figure 2). Education The market-friendly nature of government interven- As a small country with limited natural resources, the gov- tion in Israel has resulted in considerable flexibility and ernment has long recognized the importance of investing dynamism, permitting specific policies and instruments to in human capital for its development. Building on a strong evolve over the years, and adapt to what were perceived as
  • 4. Israel: Factors in the Emergence of an ICT Powerhouse Figure 2: The investment gap: The role of the Incubators Financing Public markets and own sales VC funds Investment Gap Company’s phase Idea R&D Initial sales Large sales Source: LabOne, 2005. cultural heritage stressing excellence in education, univer- 1990s, industry leaders saw the need to retrain many of 4 sities began to be established in the 1920s.With the the graduates from the top universities in electronics and founding of the state of Israel in 1948, the government computer science.Task forces were created and a major focused its attention and resources on the development of boost was given by the universities to these particular a first class educational and scientific research establishment. areas. In other words, there have been fairly successful By the early 1970s, there were half a dozen university- attempts to shift the priorities of career workstreams with- level centers of teaching and research: the Technion in in the public university system to reflect the most pressing Haifa, the Weizman Institute in Rehovot, Hebrew needs of industry, particularly the high-tech sector, because University in Jerusalem, Ben Gurion University in Beer of its perceived growth potential. Sheba, and the Universities of Haifa and Tel Aviv. The informality of much human interaction, coupled While traditional universities have not changed great- with the educational and cultural emphasis on initiative ly, with about 30 percent of students receiving degrees in and risk-taking, may also have contributed to a more sciences and engineering, the growing demand for higher entrepreneurial culture. As with other world technology education over the last 30 years has been met by liberaliz- centers, the symbiosis between top research universities ing higher education to allow private colleges, foreign and dynamic industries has been so significant that Israel, competition, and by recognizing degrees granted by despite its small size, has been ranked by the Global technical schools accredited by the Ministry of Education. Creativity Index—a measure of technology, talent, and tol- erance—as the 14th most creative country in the world.4 Between 1980 and 2000, the percentage of the population with at least 13 years of education rose from 21 to 41 One unique feature of the educational process in percent for Jewish citizens, and from 7 to 21 percent for Israel is the significant catalytic role played by the military. non-Jewish citizens. By 2000, degrees from non-traditional With compulsory military service for both sexes, the mili- colleges responding to market demand for business and tary can select and train the brightest young people in technical training represented 32 percent of the total elite computing units, giving engineers considerable (Khavul, 2005).This process provided the trained managers responsibility for project management at a young age. and workers needed by a rapidly expanding industry. While Israel has not explicitly sought to commercialize Furthermore, attempts have been made from time to time military information technologies directly, the skills devel- to reprioritize various professional streams within Israel’s oped in young programmers have produced innovative system of higher education. For instance, in the early networks when they return to civilian life, creating strong
  • 5. Israel: Factors in the Emergence of an ICT Powerhouse Figure 3: Immigration to Israel, 1990–2004 (cumulated yearly values, thousands) 1,200 1,136 1,000 800 Thousands 600 400 200 200 0 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 Source: Central Bureau of Statistics, 2005. links between research teams in the military and in indus- As shown in Figure 3, almost one million refugees from 5 try. In addition, the Computer and Data Communications Eastern Europe arrived in Israel in the decade between Network Center of the army continues to train software 1989 and 1999, many with advanced degrees, technical developers when they return to the unit for reserve duty training, and often bringing with them ambition, innova- every year, while these experienced reservists teach their tive approaches to problem solving, and a strong scholastic skills to new conscripts and other reservists. Nevertheless, tradition.This increased the population by a fifth and there are not that many examples of innovations in the reinforced its general educational level. military with clearly successful commercial applications— These immigrants included more than 100,000 scien- firewall development by Check Point being the most tists and engineers, giving Israel by far the highest number notable exception. Perhaps because of this, the majority of of engineers per capita in the world—140 per 10,000 Israeli high-tech companies see themselves as innovating employees, more than twice the level of the United States for the global market.The research capabilities of the and Japan, the second and third ranking countries in the list.5 This massive influx of manpower ensured the devel- Israeli Defence Forces have been boosted by the existence of rolling five-year budgets which facilitate product opment of the ICT industry until near the end of that development and encourage them to take on substantial crucial decade. However, it did create a major challenge to projects with a high-technological component. absorb so many people, and the government set up retraining and business development programs to facilitate the process.With the rapid expansion of the industry, Immigration skilled immigrants were quickly integrated.This expansion Immigration, welcomed and supported by the government, also attracted highly trained and experienced Israeli engi- has always been a central feature of the development of neers, many of whom had previously emigrated to the the State of Israel, as Jews from many countries returned US and Europe, but who now saw the opportunity to set to their historic homeland, bringing diverse talents and up research centers for their foreign employers or startups capacities, combined with the motivation and creativity of of their own in Israel.There are clear parallels in this area a pioneering movement.The fortuitous coincidence of the between the experiences of Israel and Taiwan, as noted collapse of the Soviet Union, combined with the explo- elsewhere in this Report. sion of information and communications technologies in the late 1980s gave the Israeli ICT industry a major boost.
  • 6. Israel: Factors in the Emergence of an ICT Powerhouse Culture egalitarian culture of openness, risk-taking and individual- ism, which places a high value on one’s capacity to speak In a globalizing world, international networking becomes out, think freely, and constantly question. Unlike Asian a key competitive advantage. For over a century, Israel countries,6 where attempts to foster innovation are some- has benefited from the influx of Jews from the diaspora, times constrained by rigid, hierarchical structures which characterized by well-established social networks, a strong place a premium on obedience, rather than on challenging sense of social responsibility, and the drive to establish authority, human interactions in Israel are much more themselves and succeed in their new homeland. More relaxed (Harel, 2005). Indeed, senior managers in top recently, this trend has been reinforced by the immigration Israeli companies in the high-tech sector will often refer of significant elements of the diaspora into Israel, bringing to their strong preference for original thinkers, who will skills and connections to international industries and not hesitate to tell their bosses how wrong they are, and networks. why a particular alternative approach will be better. For centuries, in the vast majority of European coun- Conformity with and awe of one’s supervisors is neither tries, Jews were systematically denied the opportunity to encouraged, nor in keeping with the culture of independent enjoy secular education, to enter the professions, or to thinking and active intellectual dissent. own land.This, no doubt, contributed to their ability Another interesting feature of the Israeli high-tech to remain self sufficient even in extremely inhospitable scene is the acceptance of risk-taking.There is a relatively conditions.Their new-found freedom in Israel, coupled large number of serial entrepreneurs, people who start up with the long tradition of frank and forceful Biblical argu- new high-technology ventures, develop them, take them mentation—one of the most highly valued “occupations” to the market, and then sell them, before starting the same open to Jews in the past—has given rise to a remarkably Box 1: Peace dividend The hoped-for peace process with Syria and the • The further expansion of the vast potential of the Palestinians, intended to establish credible and lasting tourism sector, where activity has tended to closely 6 security arrangements with these neighbors, would reflect the underlying security situation, as illustrated likely have a positive influence on Israel’s long-term by the large losses in the sector as a result of terror- economic outlook and its ability to sustain high growth ist attacks and the second intifada. Israel received rates. The following might be considered some of the some 2 million tourists in 2005, a 26 percent rise most obvious benefits of peace in the Middle East: over the previous year, but still small when compared to 65 million in Spain and 15 million in Portugal. • The scope it would provide for a medium-term Making generous allowances for population size and restructuring of budgetary expenditures, diminishing other factors of scale, and with appropriate invest- over time the burden of defense and the mainte- ments and upgrading in the facilities supporting the nance of the associated military establishment. sector, there is no reason why the numbers of tourists Annual defense expenditures have amounted to could not double within a few years, with beneficial some 9–10 percent of GDP in recent years (down effects on growth and the balance of payments. from 25 percent of GDP in the early 1980s), com- pared to 2.5 percent in the EU and some 3 percent • With its highly educated labor force, its close trade in the United States. Peace would permit further links with the EU and the United States and the spending cuts over the next several years, releasing remarkable expansion of high-tech industries seen in resources which could be allocated in other ways, recent years, Israel is singularly well positioned to particularly in the area of infrastructure, where Israel become a leading center for a broad range of multi- suffers from a number of shortcomings, in compari- national corporations, intent on expanding their activ- son with EU members with similar levels of per capi- ities in a post-peace settlement environment. ta income. • Last but not least, peace with Israel’s neighbors • The coming on stream of a number of potentially would be a permanent boost to the confidence of large infrastructure projects (water works, electricity foreign investors, as economic agents would be able generation, and railroads) in the border areas with to view decision making in a medium- to long-term Syria and Lebanon could have potentially lasting effects perspective, characterized by less uncertainty about on investment demand. Beyond this, peace would the political environment and greater faith in the sta- also be expected to boost intra-regional trade in the bility of the country’s policies and institutions. Middle East and cross-border direct investment.
  • 7. Israel: Factors in the Emergence of an ICT Powerhouse cycle again with a fresh idea. Others have failed in the of a venture, addressing in this way the market failures early stages but, driven by a philosophy that “failure is not inherent in the preliminary stages of investment. disgraceful if you fail honestly,” have started over again, LECI deliberately introduced a bias in favor of foreign sometimes more than once. investors, which took the form of preferential tax treatment It is worth asking if there may be a cultural dimen- with respect to national investors. It was thought that a sion to the difficulty Israeli companies have in command- favorable tax regime and the relative abundance of well- ing a world presence in terms of market capitalization. trained engineers and scientists would strengthen the Possibly, the atmosphere of a small, innovative or congenial attractiveness of Israel as a location for multinationals.The community, in which human relationships and independ- policy was based on a specific rationale: multinationals ent thinking are important, may outweigh the advantages would not only create employment in Israel, but they of large-scale institutionalization. At the same time, it may would also bring with them the technology, know-how, well be that the emphasis on individual initiative and operating procedures, managerial skills and exporting improvisation makes management less of a strength. As channels that the nascent Israeli industry needed. In other important as the subject may be, it is outside the scope of words, the idea was to leverage the spillovers deriving this study to explore in greater detail the role of culture in from the operations of the multinationals in Israel for the the development of a spirit of entrepreneurship and tech- development of the local high tech industry. nological innovation. The government’s strategy worked well: international investors flocked to Israel during the 1960s and 1970s, including high-tech giants such as IBM, Motorola, and Investment incentives and capital market reforms Intel, and were followed by many others. Figure 4 shows One major area of government intervention has been in the evolution of FDI over the 1991–2005 period. the policies and measures encouraging domestic and for- This process has been facilitated by a number of eign capital investment in Israel.The investment incentive reforms in the capital markets which have considerably package had its origins in the Law for the Encouragement of improved the efficiency of, and competition within, Israel’s Capital Investment (LECI), adopted in 1959 to attract pri- financial system.These have mainly involved deregulation vate investment—especially in the most remote and least and the elimination of a host of administrative restrictions developed areas of the country 7 —and to foster business and interventions, and the welcome reform of the capital 7 initiatives, employment, and exports. market which centered on the separation of the various The law, revised on a number of occasions to take funds from the banks. Reserve requirements, which had into account new technological and economic develop- ranged well over 30 percent in the late 1980s, had fallen ments,8 did not explicitly favor the high-tech or any to an average of 4 percent by the end of the 1990s.This, specific industrial sector,9 but, rather, ventures with high in turn, contributed to a marked narrowing of interest rate value-added and marketing capabilities in local and inter- spreads. Undue segmentation of the credit markets was national markets.The importance given to both new and sharply reduced; for instance, the share of mortgage credit existing projects varied according to the specific zone, allocated by the government fell from 70 percent in the whereas the contribution to exports had to be more mid 1980s to less than 25 percent by the end of the substantial for the central areas, zones C and B, than for 1990s. Even sharper drops took place with respect to the peripheral one, zone A, for which the contribution to other forms of credit. local employment was valued more.Those enterprises, The reforms also saw a sharp reduction in the share both Israeli and foreign-owned, which were deemed of obligatory investments in government bonds by pension eligible by the Israeli Investment Centre—a department and provident funds. Provident funds, the largest institu- of the Ministry of Industry,Trade and Labor in charge of tional investor in the Israeli economy, were allowed to the law’s administration—gained the status of “Approved invest a much larger share of their holdings in equities and Enterprises” or “Beneficiary Enterprises.”They were thus other financial assets. Alongside these efforts aimed at in a position to benefit from government grants—up to deregulation, there was also significant streamlining and 24 percent of tangible fixed assets—and/or tax benefits in modernization of the stock market, which emerged as one various forms, depending on the geographical location of the most technologically advanced in the world, with and the percentage of foreign ownership. continuous trading and short clearing periods, against a Beyond the stated goal of LECI to promote private background of fairly sound securities legislation.There are initiative and internationally competitive products, the ongoing efforts to broaden the range of financial instruments market-friendly character of the law can be seen in its offered to the public, to ensure equal tax treatment of dif- attempt to provide institutional underpinnings to the ini- ferent classes of investors and/or savings instruments, and tiatives of private investors, and to share with them the to encourage more long-term savings.The modernization higher risk associated with the development or expansion of the financial sector is thought to have played a strong
  • 8. Israel: Factors in the Emergence of an ICT Powerhouse Figure 4: Foreign Direct Investment in Israel, 1991–2004 (inflows, US$ millions) 6,000 5,000 4,000 US$ millions 3,000 2,000 1,000 0 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 Source: UNCTAD, 2006. supportive role in the development of the ICT industry. Table 1: Multinational companies with R&D centers in 8 Israel (partial list) To the extent that these reforms were driven by a desire to improve market efficiency, they made it easier for emerging companies to obtain funding under more favor- Alcatel Kollmorgen Servotronix able circumstances. Parallel progress in bringing inflation Analog Devices Marvell Semiconductor levels down to international levels also contributed to the AMCC Microsoft creation of a more stable macroeconomic environment, Avaya Motorola BMC Software National Semiconductor conducive to private sector activity in a more predictable Boston Scientific Oracle climate. Broadcom Orgenics Foreign investors in the ICT sector have typically Computer Associates Paramic Technology used one of two options to establish a presence in Israel: CEVA Pfizer they have either set up operations directly, or adopted a Cisco Phillips Conexant QUALCOMM strategy of mergers with, or friendly take-overs of, small Freescale Semiconductor Samsung local companies. As shown in Table 1, as regards operations GE Medical Systems SAP carried out in Israel, foreign investors have placed the HP (including HP Labs) Siemens emphasis on the installation of research and development IBM Silicon Graphics facilities,10 taking advantage of Israel’s ample supply of Infineon Sun Microsystems highly skilled engineers, and its solid track record for Intel SunGard Interpharm Texas Instruments innovation and problem solving. In this regard, some have KLA-Tencor Veritas Software argued that the above competitive advantages have been a mixed blessing for the Israeli economy, in that research Source: Israel Venture Association, 2005. facilities do not generally make the same contribution to job creation and exports as do manufacturing plants.They also act as a drain on limited Israeli brain power,11 which could otherwise be used by local firms. The above considerations notwithstanding, the contribution made by multinationals to the development of the Israeli high-tech industry is generally viewed as
  • 9. Israel: Factors in the Emergence of an ICT Powerhouse positive, given the many spillovers to the local economy, national labor force, improve the balance of payments, and such as easier access to the international financial and provide grants, loans, and other incentives. business markets, improved export channels, and the trans- The OCS together with the LEIRD, which it admin- fer of know-how and managing/marketing skills from the isters, constitute the two main instruments for implemen- personnel of multinationals to local companies. tation and administration of government policy in R&D, In addition to creating state-of-the-art R&D centers, and have shown a remarkable degree of flexibility over the companies such as Intel and Motorola established manu- years, and the capacity to adapt and expand their scope in facturing facilities, which rapidly became some of the response to changing technological and economic priori- largest private employers in Israel. At last count, Intel ties. As shown in Figure 5, the programs and interventions was employing more than 6,000 workers at several plants of the OCS take in the whole spectrum of the innovation scattered around the country (Haifa, Jerusalem, Kiryat Gat, process, trying to make up for market failures, when it Petach Tikva, and Yakum), and has developed into one of appears necessary to overcome potential bottlenecks in the top Israeli exporters, with a volume of US$1.6 billion private initiative/funding. in 2003, equivalent to 13 percent of total Israeli electronic Figure 6 gives a general overview of several programs exports.The linkages between Intel and Israel are particu- which are currently conducted by the OCS, together with larly strong, as evidenced by a rapid ramping up of multi- their respective budgets. As shown in the figure, the OCS billion dollar investments, mainly to expand capacity at programs can be either national or international, and they existing plants, some of which have become world leaders cover pre-seed activities as well as generic and competitive of research and innovation. R&D. It is worth mentioning that the evolution of OCS programs shows how dynamically the law has been applied. Government support for R&D Indeed, the strategy has responded well to signals As a coherent body of policies and programs, government coming from the market and to political priorities, adapting support of R&D began somewhat later than the policy of and/or adopting new programs where appropriate. incentives to private investors. By then, the economy and Looking at the composition of national programs, the flow of immigrants had slowed, after two decades of support for industrial R&D is by far the most important, strong growth.The need to define a new development in terms of budgetary allocations: US$300 million per 9 strategy was seen as a priority. Building on considerations year. Priority is generally given to those projects which similar to those which had motivated the policy on invest- result in know-how and technology, and which can lead ment incentives—notably, the abundance of a highly either to new products and processes, or to substantial skilled labor force, a culture of technological and scientific improvements of existing ones. Under the program, quali- excellence, and the scarcity of natural resources—the gov- fying companies can apply for government grants, which ernment decided to actively promote the development of normally cover 20 to 50 percent13 of the approved R&D a science-based sector by subsidizing private-sector R&D expenditure budget. A Research Committee, chaired by projects. the Chief Scientist, is in charge of administering the pro- A first step in this direction was the creation, in the gram, notably by evaluating the eligibility of projects, and late 1960s, of the Office of the Chief Scientist (OCS), at defining the conditions for approving the grants according the Ministry of Industry,Trade and Labor.The OCS to the general terms set out in the 1984 law. In this administers and grants government funds for R&D, and, in respect, eligible projects should be executed by the apply- the words of Dr. Eli Opper, the current Chief Scientist, ing company itself, and although the provisions on the “operates on the premise that the business sector alone is non-transferability abroad of both know-how and manu- incapable of carrying on an optimal level of R&D for facturing rights resulting from the R&D projects have market growth…and that under such conditions govern- recently been relaxed, transferability is still subject to ment involvement through support of industrial R&D is clearly defined costs and conditions. warranted.” 12 If the products and processes resulting from the gov- Another milestone was the adoption of the Law for ernment-sponsored project are commercially successful, the Encouragement of Industrial R&D (LEIRD) in 1984, the company must pay the government back royalties, which still represents the fundamental legal framework for which correspond to a defined percentage of the total government support to private industrial R&D.This law is annual product sales.The annual budget for industrial not fundamentally different in spirit from the LECI R&D research covers an average of 1,000 projects, (which focuses on fostering capital investment) and calls implemented by 500 companies. for the development of a science-intensive, export-oriented Another important program is called Magnet, put in industry, able to accommodate the expansion of the place in 1993 to strengthen the linkages between industry —a fragmented landscape whose entities seemed to
  • 10. Israel: Factors in the Emergence of an ICT Powerhouse Figure 5: OCS support for programs in the innovation process Risk Applied academic research Magnet Nofar Tnufa EU FP6 Competitive R&D Incubators International programs Seed fund Proximity to the market Source: MATIMOP, 2005. 10 Figure 6: Programs and activities of the Office of the Chief Scientist (US$ millions) Pre-Seed Generic R&D Competitive R&D Technological incubators .....30.0 Magnet.................................................................40.0 Industrial R&D projects....300.0 National Tnufa...........................................3.0 Magneton ..............................................................5.5 Seed fund...................................1.0* Nofar...........................................2.2 ISERD (European 6th Framework MATIMOP International Programme) ................................................4,000.0 Eureka .....................................16.0 Bi-national funds.................>23.0** Bi-national agreements * Over two years. ** Total sum available for the five bi-national R&D funds. Source: State of Israel, 2005.
  • 11. Israel: Factors in the Emergence of an ICT Powerhouse struggle to sustain the cost of developing cutting-edge returning Israelis who had succeeded in Silicon Valley and technology—and the largely untapped first-class research other technology centers, enticing them either to set up capabilities of Israeli universities. Under the Magnet R&D centers for the companies they worked for, or to program, consortia of industrial firms and at least one establish their own high-tech startups. As a result, in 2004, academic institution are entitled to multi-year grants Israel ranked sixth after the United States, Japan,Taiwan, of three to five years, for up to 66 percent of the total Switzerland, and Finland in the number of US patents approved R&D budget (with no royalty payment) to granted per capita. It is noteworthy that a much higher develop pre-competitive generic technologies.The con- proportion of international patents originating in Israel sortium commits to making the resulting technologies are held by individuals and universities rather than available to any local interested party at a moderate price. corporations, as is the case in other countries, such as the In 2005, there were 31 consortia. United States (Khavul, 2005). On the other hand, the international program of In 1991, to promote business startups, and particularly the OCS responds to a different set of considerations.The to assist the new wave of immigrants from the former relative strength of the Israeli high-tech sector lies in the Soviet Union of the early 1990s, the OCS initiated the R&D phase. Its weaknesses, however, stem from lack of incubator program to enable first time entrepreneurs with expertise and skills in international marketing, due to the innovative ideas to develop them into a business. Although country’s geographical remoteness,14 and the small size of the program was initially targeted at the many engineers its companies.These two factors suggest the importance of and scientists coming from the former Soviet Union, establishing links and formal mechanisms for cooperation many of whom had remarkable skills and research potential, with companies in the target markets. In that spirit, the but who lacked the know-how required for commercial fostering of contacts between national and foreign compa- success—knowledge of Hebrew and English, of methods nies leading to joint R&D, manufacturing, and marketing to access funding, and familiarity with market economy has been an important focus of government R&D policy. practices— it was, and still is, open to all.The basic ration- Many supporting programs have been established to ale of these two programs is to “polish the diamond,” that promote this goal, among which the most notable are is, to take selected entrepreneurs with innovative ideas bi-national funds (such as the Israel-US BIRD with export potential through to first round investments Foundation), parallel funding agreements, and participation in product development, to the point where they can 11 in the European agreements offering partnering services stand on their own, find strategic partners, and raise (EUREKA and the Sixth Framework Program for R&D, venture capital on the market. known as FP6).The OCS is assisted in the implementation The incubator initiatives have enabled the government and administration of these agreements by MATIMOP, to bridge the funding gap present at the early, risky stage which was created to serve as the national hub for of the realization of promising ideas.With a budget of encouraging the participation of Israeli enterprises in US$30 million, a total of 24 technology incubators have bilateral/multilateral programs for industrial R&D. been set up throughout the country, each conducting an average of about 10 projects, with an average life time of two to three years.The average budget of each project is Innovation: Technology incubators approximately US$450,000 per year. Some 85 percent of Successful innovation in technology requires two funda- the funds are provided by the government in the form of mental steps, the intellectual and the financial. In Israel, grants and soft loans, with the remainder provided by a the generation of ideas has always been prolific. However, venture capital firm, the incubator, or the entrepreneur, in the traditionally high level of research in the universities exchange for a share of equity in the company.The incu- and institutes has resulted in discoveries, which, in general, bator’s investment and support allow the new venture to were not rapidly transmitted to industry through mecha- develop and prove its technology, to file patents, undertake nisms for the commercialization of university inventions. market validation, develop a business model, attract the Indeed, it was the Magnet program, which later sought to first customers, add key personnel to the management strengthen the avenues of collaboration between industry team, prepare professionally for the approach to venture and the academic community.This was paralleled by the capital firms, and gain credibility by being supported by a importance of the military, particularly the army’s reputable VC. Figure 7 shows how initial government Computer and Data Communications Network Centre, support acts as a stepping stone for private investment. which has been an incubator of computer and software Beginning in 2001, 13 incubators have been privatized, development for decades.The rapid return of its staff to taking advantage of the growing influx of venture capital civilian life after military service facilitates the transfer of into the country since the mid 1990s, such as LabOne in their innovative approaches to software design to the pri- Tel Aviv, now jointly owned by a venture capital fund and vate sector.The government also created incentives for the Tel Aviv Economic Development Authority.
  • 12. Israel: Factors in the Emergence of an ICT Powerhouse Figure 7: Government vs. private sector investment in the incubator program (US$ millions) 1,200 Private investment accumulation 1,000 Government support accumulation 800 US$ millions 600 400 200 0 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 Source: Office of the Chief Scientist, 2005. There are no plans at present to expand the number country (Dar, 2005). Startups require venture capital to 12 of incubators.The authorities feel that the scope of the help them through the product development phase. present program is appropriate, given the number of In order to address one of the most pressing market promising ideas which can reasonably be expected to failures for many years in the Israeli financial system, the appear at any given time. Instead, they have sought to Israeli government played a direct role in creating a monitor the program to ensure strict quality control and remarkably market-friendly venture capital industry.The high standards of excellence.The incubator program has lack of a well-developed national capital market was one become the number one producer of startups in Israel. In of the most serious hindrances to the proper functioning 2000, there were 2,000 startups, five times the number a and expansion of Israeli industry, a deficiency which decade earlier.Today Israel has the world’s highest density government grants could only partially make up for. of high-tech startups, nearly 2,500 in a country of only 6 In 1990, Israel had two venture capital funds, manag- million people (Harel, 2005). Moreover, the success rate of ing US$59 million. In 1992, the OCS established the incubator startups is 50 percent, measured as the ability to Yozma program, to trigger the creation of a venture raise private funding to allow the company to operate for capital market in the country.The government provided at least two years.This figure compares with only 10 per- US$100 million to encourage international venture capital cent for startups in the United States and for Israeli to enter Israel, invest in Israeli high-tech firms, and men- dot.com startups (Trajtenberg, 2001). tor local venture capital talent.To match the government investment, ten funds were established by international venture capital and industrial firms, headed by Israeli Venture capital managers. Private investors participating in the funds Technological creativity can only lead to successful busi- were offered the option to buy back Yozma’s shares at a ness development if there is an adequate flow of venture predetermined price within five years. In this way the capital, and in this area Israel has achieved enviable government attracted eminent international investors and, momentum. Not only does the country have the highest together with their funds, their much-needed expertise. concentration of high-tech companies in the world after Yozma was created in a market-friendly spirit, with a fixed Silicon Valley, but it is a world leader in startups, which duration of seven years, at the end of which it was priva- contribute a higher share to GDP than in any other tized, with the government selling out its interest to the private sector. By 2000 there were over 50 venture capital
  • 13. Israel: Factors in the Emergence of an ICT Powerhouse Figure 8: Capital raised by Israeli high-tech companies, 1999–2005 (US$ millions) 1,200 ■ Financing rounds without Israeli participation ■ Foreign and other entities 1,000 ■ Israeli VCs 800 US$ millions 600 400 200 0 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 Source: IVC Research Centre, 2005. firms that raised US$9.4 billion. In that year, Israel raised Figure 8, in 2004, Israeli high-tech companies raised more 13 US$600 per capita in venture capital, compared with capital than any country in Europe (Harel, 2005), with US$30 per capita in Europe, making it the most attractive almost US$1.5 billion invested in startups and the number technology market outside the United States.The level of of venture capital transactions reaching 10 percent of those Israeli domestic venture capital as a percentage of GDP in the United States. (Dar, 2005). was the highest in the world. In addition, Israel ranked The leading areas attracting investments are commu- fifth in informal investment (Khavul, 2005). Much of this nications and networking, and software, with Israel now a financing was for relatively small investments in startups. world leader in security technologies and chip design. Over and above government policy and funding, Figure 9 illustrates Israel’s open export-oriented economy multinational corporations have also played a significant in the global ICT marketplace, and how venture capital role through strategic partnerships, which included design investments in Israel have placed on the NASDAQ Index. centers, marketing channels, eventually buying companies The perspective is clearly on the future, and since 2001, to provide an exit for the venture capital (Oron, 2005). more new companies were established in the life sciences Today, venture capital has become global and most than in any other sector. investments are multinational.The Israel Venture As seen in Figure 10, the success of the venture capi- Association (IVA) is active throughout the world, publiciz- tal process in Israel is illustrated by the fact that, in the ing opportunities and raising venture capital for Israeli decade 1995–2004, 359 Israeli high-tech companies with a companies (Harel, 2005). Silicon Valley Bank established total value of US$29 billion were acquired or merged branches in England and India in 2004, and in China and (Harel, 2005).Venture capital investments contributed to a Israel in 2005 (Brown, 2004).There are now some 50 40 percent increase in GDP and 15 percent increase in Israeli venture capital firms managing over US$12 billion employment, and accounted for 50 percent of exports and drawn from the United States, Europe, and the Far East. 65 percent of foreign investment over the same period 133 foreign venture capital firms invested in more than (Harel, 2005). one company in Israel during 2000–2004. As outlined in
  • 14. Israel: Factors in the Emergence of an ICT Powerhouse Figure 9: Investment of VC funds in Israeli startups and the NASDAQ Index, by quarter, 1997–2005 1,200 5,000 4,500 VC funds (left axis) 1,000 NASDAQ (right axis) 4,000 3,500 800 3,000 US$ million Index value 600 2,500 2,000 400 1,500 1,000 200 500 0 0 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 Source: Israel Venture Association, 2005. 14 Figure 10: Deals in which Israeli high-tech companies were acquired or merged, 1994–2004 70 18,000 Number of deals (left axis) Total value (right axis) 16,000 58 60 14,000 50 12,000 Number of deals US$ millions 40 10,000 8,000 30 6,000 20 1,834 4,000 10 2,000 0 0 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 Source: Israel Venture Association, 2005.
  • 15. Israel: Factors in the Emergence of an ICT Powerhouse Box 2: The role of ICT in boosting the growth of the overall economy 1996–20044—but total factor productivity declined for The development of the high-tech sector in Israel has been an impressive success story. The main indicators many sectors, such as retailing and business services for the last 15 years speak for themselves: the sector (–3.3 percent) or the construction sector (–2 percent). grew at an average annual rate of 16 percent in the Moreover, according to Bank of Israel figures, between 1990s, expanding from 4 percent of GDP in 1990 to 14 1994 and 2003, the bulk of investment went to the percent of GDP in 2000, and accounting for one third electronics sector, which rose at an annual average of total GDP growth.1 Software exports skyrocketed growth rate of 20 percent, compared to 5 percent in from US$135 million in 1992—roughly equivalent to traditional industries—such as food, textiles and so on—and no growth for the agricultural sector.5 total citrus exports—to US$3 billion in 2004 (see Figure 11), some 7 percent of total Israeli merchandise Such trends also had a negative impact on the exports. ICT products represented 21 percent of total patterns of income distribution in Israel. During the industrial products in 2004.2 Of the ratio of R&D 1990s, the income of the highest decile rose in line expenditure to GDP—4.6 percent in 2004—close to 80 with GDP growth, while the income of the middle and percent was allocated to ICT R&D,3 among the highest lower deciles remained more or less unchanged,6 in the world. Beyond these impressive indicators, the reflecting a large intra-sector wage disparity between significance of the Israeli high-tech sector can be fully the high-tech sector and the rest of the economy. appreciated when one considers that some of the Indeed the average annual salary bill for the high-tech most important IT breakthrough innovations of the last industry in 2002 was higher than the equivalent bill for years have been developed in Israel, from the latest the mixed high-tech industries, the mixed traditional Intel processors used in laptop and desktop comput- technological industries and the traditional technological industries.7 These observations have led a number of ers, to the disk on key, ICQ, and firewall technolo- gies—all Israeli inventions. observers to suggest the existence of a “dual economy,” Nevertheless, if one looks at the overall evolution in which the high-tech sector continues to boom while the rest of the economy lags behind.8 of the Israeli economy, the picture becomes more mixed. Not only did the growth rate of the rest of the This, in turn, raises questions about the growth 15 economy not match that of the high-tech sector— and competitiveness prospects of the Israeli economy 2.3 percent versus 10.5 percent for the period over the medium to long term, given that the high-tech (cont’d.) Figure 11: Exports of software and citrus (US$ millions) Software 3,000 Citrus 2,500 2,000 US$ millions 1,500 1,000 500 0 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 Source: MATIMOP, 2005.