On the occasion of the 63rd anniversary of Israel National Day (May10, 2011), reporter Dang Yen interviewed Mr Ran Yehezkel, Commercial Attaché of Israel to Vietnam on the cooperation relations between the two countries over the past 18 years (1993-2011).
Would you please tell us what are the regular activities to commemorate the Israeli National Day in your country?
Israel’s National Day is always celebrated one day after the Memorial Day for Israel’s fallen soldiers and victims of terrorism, whose sacrifice enabled Israel’s existence, in order to emphasize and symbolize the connection between the fallen and their devotion with the establishment of the State of Israel.
A torch-lighting ceremony at Mount Herzl (The visionary of the state) is the closing event of the Memorial Day, and the opening ceremony for Independence Day celebrations. After the official opening ceremony many events, festivals and shows are held all over the country during this day.
Vietnam and Israel have established the diplomatic relation for over18 years. How would you evaluate the current cooperation between the two countries?
From my perspective, regarding the trade relation between the countries, trade volume between Vietnam and Israel had increased significantly in the past few years, especially since the Trade Agreement came into force in early 2005, and still continues to expand.
Vietnam - Israel export-import turnover from 2006- 2010
|
Year
|
Export (millions $)
|
Import (millions $)
|
Total turnover
(millions $)
|
|
2006
|
43,42
|
41,27
|
84,69
|
|
2007
|
57,27
|
83,41
|
140,68
|
|
2008
|
82,69
|
76,85
|
159,54
|
|
2009
|
76,94
|
129,39
|
206,33
|
|
2010
|
97,48
|
124,89
|
222,37
|
Source: VCCI
Every year many business meetings between representatives of Israeli and Vietnamese companies are held, and delgations from both sides arriving for working visits. But there is still a lot of potential for expanding the trade relations and enhancing the cooperation between the countries.
Israel has many advanced technologies in agriculture. Vietnam also has an agriculture-based economy. What are, in your opinion, the potentials for the cooperation in this sector?
There is a great potential for cooperation in agriculture. Many Israeli companies are coming every year to Vietnam to search for business opportunities in this sector. Israel and Vietnam are complementary economies, Vietnam showing very high growth rates and continue the modernization processes and Israel can offer the newest technologies for improving production efficiency, quality and developing Hi-Tech agriculture as aimed by the Vietnamese government. This is a win-win situation.
A delegation of Israeli Agro-Technology companies visited Vietnam a few months ago and met Deputy Minister of Agriculture and many Vietnamese companies from this sector. Also, one of the biggest dairy farm in the world was built in Nghe An Province, and it is a flag project in which Israeli technologies from the Israeli company AFIMILK are used and combined with Vietnamese skills and labor force, the result is a very successful and promising.
The Israeli water technology is known as the most advanced in the world. Would you please talk about the country's experience on this industry and the cooperation between the two countries in this field?
Water technologies have always been a national priority in Israel, which more than 50 percent of its land is desert. The country placed great emphasizes on maximizing its water supply, and succeed to turn much of its arid land into fertile agricultural soil. The Israeli water industry is today recognized as a global leader in water sector thanks to breakthrough technological innovations in areas such as desalination, drip irrigation and water security. Israel reclaims almost 75 percent of its reused effluents in agriculture. Israel’s water industry is estimated to reach a value of 2.5 billion $ by 2011.
Last year delegations of Israeli companies from water sector visited Vietnam to learn about the country needs in this sector and seek partners and business opportunities. Also, on October 2010 an agreement was signed between HCMC Municipal and the Ministry of Industry Trade and Labor of Israel on cooperation in water management that will also include the organization of conferences, exhibitions, training courses and seminars in both HCMC and Israel. We will soon examine ways to implement this agreement.
The highlight of this year activities in water technologies is Watec Israel 2011 event, the International Conference and Exhibition of Water and Environmental Technologies that will be held in Tel Aviv, 15-17 November 2011. We are very excited to welcome big delegation from Vietnam to Israel.
Besides, which fields do you think the two countries need to promote strongly to co-operate in future, for example telecommunications, health sector ?
The cooperation between Israel and Vietnam in communication sector is already strong and should be promoted further. Many Israeli companies are active in Vietnam and cooperate with telecom suppliers. Israeli companies have traditionally been at the forefront of the global Communications industry and several world renowned communication powerhouses emerged in Israel along with hundreds of smaller Tech companies and over 1,000 active Israeli communications start-ups.
In CommunicAsia event that will be held 21-24 June 2011 in Singapore we will have Israeli booth and many Israeli telecom companies are expected to participate in the event. We hope Vietnamese companies will take this opportunity to visit our booth and hopefully both sides will find more ways for cooperation.
A delegation of high rank officials from Vietnam’s Ministry of Communication had a working visit recently to Israel in order to learn from the Israeli experience and we hope to enhance this cooperation.
I also strongly recommend promoting cooperation in health sector. Israel's Life Sciences industry is very innovative. Multinationals companies, like J&J, Perrigo, GE Healthcare and Phillips Medical, together with local companies such as Teva, Given Imaging, Insightec, Medinol and others created valuable innovations and world leading health sector in Israel. Israeli technologies and equipment can support the modernization of Vietnam’s health services.
And finally, what is your most impressive thing during your time in Vietnam and what will you tell your people about Vietnam country and people?
Vietnam and Israel are geographically very far from each other and sometimes it creates misperception by people from both sides, but when you arrive to Vietnam the first thing you notice is the momentum of development, growth and construction everywhere and the fast changes that are happening in the country. People are very warm and welcoming, and in some aspects remind me the people in Israel.
Vietnamese
