ADVANCED MANUFACTURING

What Makes Israel the Best Location for Advanced Manufacturing

The education system and the cultural atmosphere in Israel encourage excellence, and value thinking out of the box. These skills are encouraged from a very young age in every individual in Israel.	1. Entrepreneurial culture
Since the Israeli military is a giant system that encapsulates almost all types of industries, many Israelis gain a lot of experience working in a myriad of diverse fields, solving many different problems: from heavy machinery through computer programming to real-time difficult decision making that often involves human lives, young Israelis face many exceptional challenges that make them unique on a global scale.	2. Military service
The Israeli system of higher education is known worldwide for being innovative, high level and diverse. Whether it’s purely academic, vocational, or anywhere within that spectrum, the final product – the worker – is always perfectly trained for market requirements. Israel has an efficient vocational education system that trains workers in a wide variety of professions such as computer programming, design, technical drawing, practical engineering, welding, engraving, machine operation and more. All of these co-exist with the highly-trained professionals that come out of universities and other research institutes.	3. Top academic education

 

International free trade agreements (FTAs) 2

Israel’s strategic geographic location and highly stable economy have led to many types of FTAs and other international agreements with many different countries and unions all across the globe.

Israel has signed 11 FTAs covering 44 countries, including the US, the EU, the Mercosur Union, the EFTA Union, Turkey and more. In addition, as a member of the WTO, Israel signed many other multilateral agreements such as:

ITA (Information Technology Agreement) – An agreement with 82 participants representing 97% of world trade in IT products. In 2015, Israel, among other 50 countries, signed an expansion to the agreement which now covers over 200 additional products valued at over $1.3 trillion annually.

GPA (Governmental Procurement Agreement) – An agreement with 47 participants, in which the fundamental aim is to mutually open government procurement markets among its parties. As a result of several rounds of negotiations, the GPA parties have opened procurement activities worth an estimated $1.7 trillion annually to international competition.

GATT & GATS (General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade & General Agreement on Trade and Services) – Agreements aiming at creating a credible and reliable system of international trade rules (of both goods and services), ensuring fair and equitable treatment of all participants (principle of non-discrimination), stimulating economic activity through guaranteed policy bindings and promoting trade and development through progressive liberalization. All 140 WTO members take part in the agreements.

Israel has signed 11 FTAs covering 44 countries, including the US, the EU, the Mercosur Union, the EFTA Union, Turkey and more.

EGA (Environmental Goods Agreement) – An agreement with 40 participants, aiming to cancel taxation over environmental goods. The agreement is currently still under negotiation.

In addition, Israel is an OECD member and is currently developing other bilateral agreements with leading global economies such as China, South Korea, India and more.