Minister Sylvan Shalom at the Negev Conference 2010: The Bio-Negev project is launched - an international innovation center for the biotechnology and life sciences industry will be established in the Negev as a regional industrial "cluster"

Among the partners in the cluster: Ben-Gurion University, the Negev Development Authority, the Municipality of Beer-Sheva, Soroka Hospital, BGN (the commercialization company of Ben-Gurion University), the National Institute of Biotechnology in the Negev (NIBN), the Advanced Technologies Park (ATP) and Arba Technological incubators from Omer, Dimona, Sde Boker and Ashkelon

The Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Development of the Negev and Galilee, Sylvan Shalom, announced at the 2010 Negev Conference, which opened this morning in Be'er Sheva, the official launch of BioNegev, an international innovation center for the biotechnology and life sciences industry in the Negev. According to the minister, the Negev-Galil ministry is currently leading a move to pool an inter-ministerial budget for the benefit of the center.

Bio-Negev, which will be established as a regional industrial "cluster", in the format of the European clusters (Bioclusters), will serve as a framework for the development of the biotechnology and life sciences industry in the Negev region.

According to Minister Shalom, Bio-Negev responds to three strategic goals of the State of Israel: the empowerment of the Negev region economically and socially; Reversing the brain drain trend at the regional and national level; and the development of the biotechnology and life sciences industry as an economic growth engine. "A project in the Yongev is the way to encourage young people to come to the Negev, to develop and develop it - and to make the young people who study here want to stay," says Minister Shalom. "My vision of bringing about 300 more residents to the Negev by 2020 will happen thanks to projects like this that will bring about a real change here."

The minister noted the government's decision from last week to approve a national plan to "bring brains" to Israel through centers of excellence and made it clear that he hopes Bio-Negev will be the "flag at the top of the camp for the actual implementation of the plan, and by doing so the State of Israel will be able to profit twice." Minister Shalom added that the cluster will be a lever for the establishment of an industry based on the sources of knowledge in the region (Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Soroka University Hospital) and existing investments (the National Institute of Biotechnology, the Park for Advanced Technologies).

The CEO of the Ministry for the Development of the Negev and the Galilee, Orna Hozman-Bakur, said at the conference: "We identified here an opportunity to position the Negev and brand it as an international center for the life sciences industry, while moving from polluting industries to a clean industry that supports ecology. The Negev has become the center of the country's knowledge sources and this resource must be used."

"Bio-Negev was founded in order to position the Negev as an international center for the biotechnology and life sciences industry" says the CEO of Bio-Negev, Dr. Shay Yarkoni, who also serves as the chairman of the advisory committee of the Export Institute in the field of life sciences. Yarkoni, a physician and senior manager in the biotechnology industry, emphasized that Bio-Negav is currently the only cluster from Israel that is a member of the steering committee of the European Superframework - the European Council for Regional Biotechnology Centers - CEBR and that it will integrate existing resources and capabilities (academic, clinical and industrial), will work to establish industrial infrastructures in the region and will be a focal point for attracting financial, organizational, managerial and human resources to the Negev.

According to Yarkoni, who was accompanied in the establishment procedures by Dr. Bina Baum, director of the European region and pioneers of the biotechnology industry in Israel, and Kobi Frishman, VP of Israel Affairs, "the establishment of the cluster is part of a global process to solve the problem of fragmentation in the biotechnology and life sciences industry."

"The field of life sciences is considered one of the most promising growth engines of the State of Israel, and the industry has even been defined as a national target by the Prime Ministers and Ministers of Science and Technology of Israel in the last ten years," says Frishman, born in Beersheba and a biotechnology engineer with years of project management and strategic consulting in biotechnology companies. , medical devices and hi-tech. Frishman explains that "In many countries in the world, industry clusters are being developed as a tool to deal with the problem of fragmentation in the industry, the clusters enable accessibility and high efficiency of the cluster components by geographically concentrating the capabilities and synergistic activity between them. The governments in those countries support the development of this tool and recognize its strategic importance." Frishman concludes that "even in Israel they have learned to understand the importance of clusters in general (see the Milken Institute report on the life sciences industry) and the periphery in particular (Makub's report on strengthening the periphery), but the issue has not been put into practice until today."

The 2010 Negev Conference opened this morning (March 23) in Be'er Sheva under the chairmanship of the Deputy Prime Minister, the Minister for Development of the Negev and the Galilee Silvan Shalom and in the capacity of the President of the State, Shimon Peres. Other ministers who came to the conference: Minister of Construction and Housing, Ariel Atias, Minister of Finance, Yuval Steinitz, and Minister of Minority Affairs, Avishai Braverman.