{"id":27923,"date":"2018-02-23T03:38:44","date_gmt":"2018-02-23T11:38:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/?p=27923"},"modified":"2018-02-21T14:26:53","modified_gmt":"2018-02-21T22:26:53","slug":"china-israel-trade-ties","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/2018\/02\/23\/china-israel-trade-ties\/","title":{"rendered":"China-Israel trade ties"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rebecca Fannin, founder of Silicon Dragon, at the event in Tel Aviv on Jan. 29. (photo from silicondragonventures.com)<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Perhaps unlikely partners \u2013 6,000 kilometres away from each other \u2013 Israel and China are cooperating and collaborating on business and investment deals worth billions of dollars. But it\u2019s a not-so-hidden secret that China has been falling in love with Israeli start-ups, entrepreneurs and high-tech in general. And the feeling\u2019s mutual.<\/p>\n

The phenomenon was discussed Jan. 29 at an event called Silicon Dragon Israel, held at WeWork Sarona in Tel Aviv. Silicon Dragon events have occurred around the world since 2010.<\/p>\n

Forbes<\/em> contributor and author Rebecca Fannin is founder of Silicon Dragon, which boasts a 30,000-strong network of executives, entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and angel investors. She recently noted in Forbes<\/em> that \u201cseveral mega-funded Chinese tech startups are poised to go public this year or next,\u201d with a potential combined worth of a quarter-trillion dollars.<\/p>\n

There are likely to be Israeli fingerprints in some of those, and other recent, deals, given how Royi Benyossef, developer relations manager of Samsung Next, explained, \u201cThey\u2019re mesmerized by Israel and their technology-exporting capabilities\u2026. The idea that it\u2019s a \u2018start-up nation\u2019 leads the Chinese to believe this is a place they want to invest in.\u201d<\/p>\n

Benyossef was on the panel discussing how key Asian corporations are leveraging Israel tech knowhow. He was joined by the director of investments of Singtel Innov8, Gil Prashker.<\/p>\n

In another panel, moderator Simon Weintraub of Yigal Arnon and Co. explained the best way to cooperate with investors, especially when dealing with cultural barriers. As Yahal Zilka, managing partner and co-founder of Magma Venture Partners, explained, \u201cIn one word, building trust\u2026. That doesn\u2019t happen in one day.\u201d<\/p>\n

By way of example, Zilka said the GPS mapping app Waze \u201cfailed twice, miserably\u201d in China. \u201cAnd it all had to do with trust, nothing else. It clearly is a different interaction, pace and activity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Avishai Silvershatz, managing partner, Infinity Group, added, \u201cThe short answer is, be careful. Nothing in your experience will give you the experience to enable you to understand it. You have to have local partners, and be careful with them as well \u2013 it takes \u2026 years to understand. You have to be smart. There\u2019s a lot of money to be made, because there\u2019s as much money to be made as lost.\u201d<\/p>\n

One jolt for which most investors were unprepared was a recent government intervention. Weintraub said that, in 2016, business interaction from China was at an all-time high, until the authorities there \u201ccracked down on the outflow of currency.\u201d He said, \u201cIt caused tremendous uncertainty for 2017 \u2026 but now they\u2019ve eased some of those restrictions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zilka noted that the bureaucracy in China is comprised of \u201cvery complex structures.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the same way that [Donald] Trump says \u2018America first,\u2019 the Chinese are saying \u2018China first,\u2019\u201d explained Silvershatz. \u201cThey want investments to go towards their own strategic interests and goals. This is the \u2018party line.\u2019 It\u2019s government, then corporate \u2026 so long as the government has their way.\u201d<\/p>\n

This panel also included Ehud Levy of Canaan Partners Israel, Aaron Mankovski of Pitango Venture Capital and Nathan Low of Sunrise Israel Tech Capital.<\/p>\n

Independent of the event, some academics weighed in on why the Israel-China business relationship works so well.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s different in organizational culture,\u201d Daniel Galily, a former lecturer at Beijing-Geely University, told the Jewish Independent<\/em>. \u201cThe educational system in China places great emphasis on discipline and obedience to superiors, while the Israeli educational system and the Israeli army encourage students and soldiers to think about new ideas and to solve problems in situations of uncertainty. The Chinese understand that, and so they strive to integrate the Israeli creativity to their economy, and also strive to learn how to combine creativity in to their economy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dave Gordon<\/strong> is a Toronto-based freelance writer whose work has appeared in more than 100 publications around the world.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rebecca Fannin, founder of Silicon Dragon, at the event in Tel Aviv on Jan. 29. (photo from silicondragonventures.com) Perhaps unlikely partners \u2013 6,000 kilometres away from each other \u2013 Israel and China are cooperating and collaborating on business and investment deals worth billions of dollars. But it\u2019s a not-so-hidden secret that China has been falling […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27924,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[3851,3136,3608,4330,7879,7880],"class_list":["post-27923","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world","tag-business","tag-china","tag-high-tech","tag-israel","tag-rebecca-fannin","tag-silicon-dragon"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27923","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27923"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27923\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27924"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27923"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27923"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27923"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}