MUMBAI, India - 27 August 2010 - “Israel, which is the home of enterprise, innovations and R & D, offers vast business opportunities to Indians”, says Ms Orna Sagiv, Israeli Consul-General in Mumbai. She was addressing well-attended meeting organized by Indian Merchants' Chamber on August 26.

The meeting, which was jointly organized by IMC, the Federation of Indo-Israel Chambers of Commerce, Indo-American Chamber of Commerce and Rotary Club of Bombay, also unveiled an IMC plan to lead a delegation to Israel and Jordan from November 23 and December 3, 2010, for not only discovering vast business opportunities, but also for visiting holy sites and historical places of religious interest to Jews, Christians and Muslims.

Introducing her, Mr Dilip Dandekar, IMC President, recalled that IMC and FICCI jointly led a business delegation to the Agritech fair in Israel in 2009. "On this occasion, IMC also signed MOUs with Israeli counterparts. In November this year, we are again sponsoring a big delegation to Israel, under the leadership of IMC's immediate past President Mr Gul Kripalani", he said and invited members of the public to join the delegation.

Ms Orna Sagiv said,”India and Israel were both working towards signing a Free Trade agreement soon. "Already, Israel has such agreements with US and other developed countries, in addition to Egypt and Turkey in the Middle East. Like India, Israel is a democracy; it has an ancient culture and highly resourceful people. But, unlike India, Israel has a small, arid landmass, inhabited by seven million people; it receives very little rainfall. And hence our people, perforce, are required to be highly inventive and resourceful for survival in this competitive world. Israel has more companies listed on NASDAQ than any other country outsider North America. It has the world's largest number of start-ups, except for the US. It will be the first country to launch electric car network. It has the world's largest number of scientists. It is the home of silicon miracle and leading to scientific breakthroughs such as cellular telephony and voice over IP (internet protocol)."

The Consul-General also cited her country's pioneering contributions to humanity in the fields of biotechnology, agronomy, water management, solar and geothermal energies, waste-water recycling, environment etc. "All this happened because we have an enterprising, resourceful, high-quality human capital, numerous local as well as US-based venture capitals, and the democratic government that supports all R&D and innovative endeavours," she said.

Mr Gul Kripalani said that the proposed delegation to Israel would not be confined only to members of the sponsor Chambers, but would also include other interested people. "The Maharashtra government is likely to depute some officials to visit Israel, if only to study its advanced agronomic practices .Our itinerary is flexible and tailor-made to suit different segments of the delegation members. The businessmen, who do not have much time to spare, will be offered the facility to conclude their business exploratory visit in the first three days, after visiting the business sites and holding one-on-one talks. For religious groups, the duration can be five or six days, and for the holiday-makers, it will be 12 days."