ISRAEL, November 25th, 2018 – Today marked a new milestone for China and Israel with the signing ceremony of a Friendship City Agreement between the Haidian District of Beijing and the city of Herzliya in Israel. The ceremony took place in Israel, in the City Hall of Herzliya and was attended by key participants from Beijing’s Haidian district government, the Zhongguancun Street Operation Management Company, Compass Ventures Group, the Herzliya Municipality of Israel, and the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya (IDC). The agreement was signed by Mr. Yu Jun, Party Secretary of Haidian and Mr. Moshe Fadlon, Mayor of Herzliya. This initiative has for objective to promote common prosperity and the development between the two cities, by conducting exchanges and collaborations in economy, trade, science, technology, culture, talent and education.
The city of Herzliya, located in the north of Tel Aviv, is known as the “Silicon Valley of Israel” and is home to many national and multinational high-tech companies, startups and accelerators. Similarly, Haidian District of Beijing is also a hub for many high-tech companies, with many technology-focused academies and its own “Silicon Valley of China”, the Zhongguancun Street, which is located at the heart of the Haidian District.
At the ceremony, Mr. Moshe Fadlon, Mayor of Herzliya shared that he always had a wish of cooperating with the Haidian District of Beijing over their similar activity, knowledge and interest in the fields of high-tech and innovation: “I believe that Herziliya and Haidian District can collaborate across many important topics such as high-tech, education, culture and much more. Today marks the beginning of our mutual journey, where both parties will sit together to identify common areas and opportunities to work together, grow and enrich each other.”
Mr. Yu Jun, Party Secretary of Haidian District, mentioned how in 2017, the states of China and Israel have already established a comprehensive innovation partnership. “We welcome any country and city in the world that shares our strategic vision for technology growth, with similar values and advanced enterprise capabilities. Herzliya is a hotbed for Israel’s innovative enterprises, multinational enterprises, and entrepreneurial companies with strong innovation capabilities. We both share high ecology and environment-friendly standards and we both have the full support of our respective governments invest and develop growth, so in this way, we have a lot of things in common. It is a good match for both our parties and I am sure we will all benefit from collaborating on mutual projects on these topics.”
Dr. Ronen Dagon, Chairman of Compass Ventures Group emphasized that the Group has been operating in China for over 10 years and is continuously cooperating with universities, state-owned enterprises and academic institutions such as the Peking University and the Tsinghua University of Beijing. Dr. RonenDagon added: “As part of the collaboration between the two municipalities, a new Innovation Center, the China Israel Innovation Center is planned to open in Zhongguancun in early 2019 with the support of the Haidian District government. The Center will be jointly managed by the Compass Ventures Group and Zhongguancun. Mr. Moshe Kamar from the Compass Ventures Group, and Mr. Du Peng from Zhongguancun will act as active Co-CEOs. The Center will have for objective to showcase Israel’s most advanced technologies across a range of industries while promoting business collaboration with the Beijing Zhongguancun ecosystem. In parallel, the Compass Ventures Group together with Zhongguancun will establish a technology fund, the China-Israel Innovation Fund. The Fund will focus on investing in Israeli technology, with the support and collaboration of the Haidian Government.”
Mr. Du Peng, General Manager of the Zhongguancun Street Operation Management Company, who also attended the ceremony commented: “Israel is well recognized world-wide for its remarkable achievements in the field of innovation. Zhongguancun is aimed to become the world’s leading innovation center, and that is why it is necessary to cooperate with Israel on this topic. By establishing this twin-city relationship, Haidian and Herzliya, can both contribute to the setting up of the China Israel Innovation Center and leverage it to carry out two-way exchanges in the matters of scientific and technological innovation.”
