Business in Israel

 

The ongoing global economic downturns have changed business conduct of firms and companies all over the world. Adjustments have been made in Business in Israel as well.  Monetary and fiscal policies which have been implemented in the past five years by the Israeli finance ministry and central bank have provided Israel with the strength needed in order to cope with the challenges of the upcoming global economic moderation. Israel's central bank is conservative in its bank supervision. As a result, Israel's banks are stable and able to cope with the challenges of the current global economic moderation.  

Therefore, Business in Israel still looks promising. Throughout the past two decades, many international companies and corporations have been entering the Israeli market by establishing branches or independent companies in Israel. An average American or European might think that doing business in Israel is not profitable and might be even risky. A deeper look into the Israeli market and the Israeli reality will contradict that assumption.

Israel is a unique country which holds a unique market. Although Israel isn't abundant with natural resources and its geo-politic situation is quite complicated, there are many factors which make conducting business in Israel to be a worthwhile venture.

Israel is known to be a high-tech hothouse. Business in Israel has developed along side the major development of Israeli high-tech. High tech in Israel is one of the main fields which helped business in Israel take off, but not the only field.

The combination of being surrounded by hostile neighbors and having the need to absorb millions of Jewish immigrants over the years, forced Israel to grow a versatile and strong market. Business in Israel has known ups and downs; nevertheless, it's safe to say that the last two decades have shown a clear direction of growth and expansion.

Israel has known to take advantage of its high quality human resources in order to develop in many fields. In Israel there are 135 engineers per 10,000 people - in the US there are 85.  On of the reasons business in Israel has developed immensely throughout the past two years is the realization that technologies and innovations that have been used for military uses can be can be converted to civilian applications. This is the case in many of the leading fields of business in Israel: Aeronautics, communications, night vision technologies, network security and more.

Business in Israel has been receiving a substantial thrust from foreign investments. Many international companies and venture capital funds have identified the great potential hidden in Israel and have been investing in Israeli businesses or entering the Israeli market themselves. In 2004, 428 Israeli high tech companies alone, have received 1.46$ billion from local and foreign investors - a 50% increase from the previous year. This trend has continued ever since.

The current world economic crisis has been posing a test to the versatility of the Israeli market. From the Israeli point of view, the current crises has shown that business in Israel is safe and firm - The Shekel has been holding up quite well and no local bank has fallen. Israel has a very conservative mortgage policy, which leads many Israeli's to complain on the one hand, yet on the other hand - this policy definitely saved business in Israel and the Israeli market from being exposed to the sub prime crisis.

 

All of the above are illustrations to the fact that Israel is a developing, promising and a versatile market. These days, Israel is facing the current economic crises in a responsible, reliable and efficient way, in some ways even better than other western countries. We believe that in the future, investors who seek to do business in Israel or establish a business in Israel will find these ventures successful.