This is what Ohad Olmert, the minister of the TMT, commented sarcastically during his speech at the Caesarea conference. * Note: We compete with IBM, Intel, USA, India, China and Finland and Sweden. If hundreds of billions are invested there and we have several billions - the innovations will be elsewhere and we will be left behind
The Caesarea conference returned the investment in R&D to the public debate. Ehud Olmert, the Minister of Science and Technology, took advantage of the stage at the Caesarea conference and returned to severely criticize the scope of research and development in Israel. "In research and development, size matters, and everything the State of Israel invests in R&D is similar to what one country named IBM invests. We compete with IBM, Intel, USA, India, China and Finland and Sweden. If hundreds of millions are invested there and we have a few millions - the innovations will be elsewhere and we will be left behind. We will have to invest much more," Olmert said during his speech at the conference.
Olmert announced a plan to establish private investment funds for the development of the Negev, the Galilee and Jerusalem with an investment of NIS 3 billion - one third of this amount will come from government investment and two thirds from private investments. These funds will provide financial tools that will allow mid-stage Israeli companies to realize their capabilities to cause growth. Olmert also announced his support for the investment of Israeli institutional entities in venture capital funds by insuring part of their investment. Another proposal was to issue bonds with a total value of about one billion shekels to finance the chief scientist's budget. In addition, Olmert announced the field of nanotechnology as a national project in which NIS 300 million will be invested in the next five years. The Ministry of Taxation also requests to encourage the expansion and establishment of development centers owned by international corporations within the framework of tax incentives. Olmert also proposes the establishment of joint funds for the government and private financial entities to improve the creditworthiness of small and medium exporters.
Eli Horowitz, Teva's president, and Israel Makov, the company's CEO, explained how the company became a huge company through streamlining and investment - each investment dollar yielded $1.80 in output 10 years ago, and today we have increased the return to $3 for each investment dollar, said the two. Horowitz supported increasing R&D and said: "This large factory in Jerusalem that you see would not have been established if conditions similar to those provided in other parts of the world had not been provided in Israel."
Ilan Cohen, Director General of the Prime Minister's Office, also addressed the issue and said that "there is a need to establish more locomotives in Israel that will attract different industries, such as Teva - whether high-tech or low-tech industries. This is achieved through aid for research and development.
Etty Lozato, joint CEO of the patent attorneys firm Lozato the Lozato, said that it is necessary to analyze the success of the high-tech industry so far in order to know how to repeat the success, without repeating the mistakes. "In the 90s, technological incubators were established as a means of better absorbing immigrants. There are signs of continuity of privatized incubators, but not in the same numbers as in the early 90s - and it's a shame, because incubators have a non-negligible effect on the success of Israeli hi-tech."
