May - June 2010 • Volume 51

ISRAEL RANKED 17TH MOST COMPETITIVE ECONOMY BY IMD  

This newsletter is brought to you by Invest
in Israel, the investment promotion center
of the Ministry of Industry, Trade and
Labor.
Invest in Israel works closely with
potential and current investors before,
during and after investment, and serves as
a resource for investment related
information about Israel.
The Swiss Institute for Management Development (IMD) ranked Israel
17th out of 58 of the world's most economically developed nations in
its 2010 World Competitiveness Yearbook, raising it by seven spots
from its 2009 ranking.
Israel was also rated first in several of the report's sub-categories. The
Israeli economy was considered the most durable in the face of crises,
and was ranked No. 1 for its expenditure in research and development
as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP). Israel also came in
first for the innovative capacity of firms to generate new products,
processes and services.

In This Issue In the business-efficiency category, Israel scored very high in

ISRAEL RANKED 17TH MOST
COMPETITIVE ECONOMY BY IMD   
ISRAEL TAKES EUREKA CHAIR - WORLD'S
LARGEST R&D INITIATIVE  
INTEL CORP BUYS ISRAEL'S COMSYS
ISRAEL'S MA INDUSTRIES
ALBAUGH FOR $1 BLN
ECI TELECOM WINS $800 MLN CONTRACT
WITH BRITISH TELECOM
ISRAEL'S KAMADA GETS FDA APPROVAL
FOR INNOVATIVE DRUG
WEIZMANN RANKED 2ND BEST ACADEMIC
WORKPLACE IN WORLD
EUROPEAN DRUG GIANT MERCK SERONO
TO EXPAND ISRAELI OPERATIONS
ISRAELI UNEMPLOYMENT DROPS 0.7%
TO LOWEST NUMBER SINCE JANUARY
2009   
8 ISRAELI START-UPS NAMED
HERRING 100 WINNERS  culminating in Jerusalem in June 2011.
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availability of skilled labor, finance skills, entrepreneurship of managers
and venture capital.
The Bank of Israel was also praised, ranking highest among central
banks for its efficient functioning, after receiving 8th place in 2009. The
Bank of Israel played an important role guarding the Israeli economy
from the effects of the global financial crisis. 
The IMD, which is a leading business school located in Lausanne,
Switzerland, examines the level of developed nations' competitiveness
BUYS based on some 330 different parameters.
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ISRAEL TAKES EUREKA CHAIR - WORLD'S LARGEST R&D
INITIATIVE
Israel became the first non-European state to head the EUREKA
Network, the leading industrial R&D initiative in Europe and the largest
of its kind in the world with investments of 1.5 billion euros every year.
Israel's Office of the Chief Scientist head Eli Opper will serve as the
organization's chairman.
In recent years, Israel became one of the five most active members in
Eureka boasting the same number of projects as much bigger [EU]
countries. Out of nearly 300 new projects initiated by Eureka in 2008,
40 involved Israeli companies.
As the head of the pan-European, inter-governmental initiative, Israel
RED has planned five conferences, starting in Tel Aviv in October and
Eureka was set up in 1985 as a legal framework allowing European
companies to collaborate and receive government funding.

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5 bank of Israel St.
INTEL CORP BUYS ISRAEL'S COMSYS
Jerusalem 91036
Israel Intel Corporation acquired Israeli WiMAX fables semiconductor vendor
Comsys Communication and Signal Processing Ltd for $30 million.
Phone: 972-2-6662607
Through its purchase of the Herzliya-based company, Intel will gain a
 stronger market presence in the market for 2G and 3G protocols and
Fax: 972-2-6662938 files
Email: investinisrael@moital.gov.il
Comsys was founded in 1994 when it initially produced a PC modem
Website: http://www.investinisrael.gov.il/
and then gradually changed its focus to develop processors for 3G
mobile devices, which it sold to its strategic partner, Texas Instruments
Inc.
To remove your name from our mailing list,
Comsys' 80 employees will join Intel Israel's R&D centers for wireless
please send us an email to communications in Haifa and Petah Tikva.
investinisrael@moital.gov.il
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ISRAEL'S MA INDUSTRIES BUYS ALBAUGH FOR $1 BLN

Israel's Makhteshim Agan, the world's biggest generic agrochemical

maker, is acquiring Iowa-based Albaugh, a leading US producer of
glyphosate and other generic herbicides, two of Makhteshim's core
businesses.

Albaugh, which was founded in 1979, has six plants in the US, Brazil,
Mexico, and Argentina, and a joint venture in China, and its South
American sales in Brazil, Argentina, and Chile complement
Makhteshim's business in Brazil, Colombia and Ecuador.

The Albaugh acquisition gives Makhteshim a significant presence in

North America and South America, low cost production sites, efficient
supply chain, and access to large growers in the US Midwest.

Makhteshim Agan is a subsidiary of Koor Industries, which is part of

the IDB Holding group. It had sales of $2.2 billion in 2009.

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ECI TELECOM WINS $800 MLN CONTRACT WITH BRITISH

TELECOM

Israel's ECI Telecom has won its largest ever contract, an $800 million
deal with British Telecom's Openreach to help establish a large-scale
super-fast broadband network in Britain.

ECI will deploy next generation access for up to 18 million households

and businesses throughout Britain in the next 3-5 years. Deployment is
scheduled to begin in July-August. Openreach, which was created in
2006 to give communications providers equal access to Britain's local
access network, plans to invest a further 1 billion pounds ($1.51
billion), or 2.5 billion in total, to extend deployment of fibre-to-the-
premise and fibre-to-the-cabinet to around two thirds of Britain by
2015.

ECI supplies communications platforms for carrier and service provider

networks. It was acquired by a group of funds led by the Swarth Group
for $1.24 billion in 2007 and delisted from Nasdaq.

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ISRAEL'S KAMADA GETS FDA APPROVAL FOR INNOVATIVE

DRUG

Kamada won U.S. approval for its treatment of Alpha-1 Antitrypsin

deficiency (AATD), a lung-damaging condition that is mainly found in
Europe and North America. The Food and Drug Administration
approved a liquid version of Kamada's intravenous treatment Glassia,
making it the first Israeli company to get U.S. clearance for a drug
produced by a biological process rather than a chemical one. Though
there are other drugs on the market that treat AATD, Glassia is the
only liquid product.

The drug is currently undergoing advanced clinical trials in Europe for

an inhaled version.

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WEIZMANN RANKED 2ND BEST ACADEMIC WORKPLACE IN

WORLD

The Scientist magazine ranked the Weizmann Institute of Science as

the second best scientific institution outside the US for which to work in
its "Top 10 International Academic Institutions for 2010", for the
second consecutive year. The Hebrew University of Jerusalem was
ranked fifth. Altogether, the Weizmann Institute has been ranked
second three times, and in first place twice.

The Weizmann Institute, which is home to 2,600 scientists, students,

technicians, and supporting staff, has 100 full-time life science
researchers, a government budget of $4 million, and 11,873 published
papers in the life sciences, with an average of 15.29 citations per
paper.

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EUROPEAN DRUG GIANT MERCK SERONO TO EXPAND ISRAELI

OPERATIONS
"The Israeli science has a special zest to it, one which we are thrilled to
encounter time and time again. Together with Merck Serono, this
special zest can create the next blockbuster drug" - Inter-Lab Chief
Executive Regine Shevach

Merck Serono SA, Europe's largest biopharmaceutical company, has

called on Israeli entrepreneurs and start-ups to collaborate with it
through its local R&D center, Inter Lab Ltd.

Merck Serono noted they are looking for unique collaborations across a
range of fields, including autoimmune and inflammatory diseases,
oncology, and endocrinology to expand its drug pipeline. In addition,
the company will focus on the development of commercial drugs from
molecules in early stages of development.

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ISRAELI UNEMPLOYMENT DROPS 0.7% TO LOWEST NUMBER

SINCE JANUARY 2009  

Israel's labor market continues to recover from the recession. The

Israel National Employment Service reported that the number of
unemployed fell 0.7% to 193,800 persons in April 2010 from 195,100
persons in March.

Israeli unemployment is expected to drop to 7% in 2010, from 7.7

percent in 2009. The Bank of Israel expects unemployment to drop to
6.7 percent in 2011.

The number of jobseekers with college degrees fell 2.1% while the
number of jobseekers without higher degrees fell 2.8%.
 
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8 ISRAELI START-UPS NAMED RED HERRING 100 WINNERS  

Red Herring, a global media company, included eight Israeli start-ups
among its European Top 100 for 2010 in recognition of their
innovations and technologies across their respective industries. The
eight Israeli companies are attracTV, BriefCam Ltd., MS Tech Ltd.,
SolarEdge Technologies Ltd., SundaySky, TaKaDu, Trusteer, and Waze.

SolarEdge boosts PV system output to enable cost efficient production

of up to 25% more energy from any PV installation. TaKaDu uses
sparse data from existing sensors and folds that in with weather data,
acoustic data, and GIS data to create a smart water grid, allowing the
water utility to improve its ability to plan and forecast, saving money
and resources in the process.

Red Herring’s Top 100 Europe list has become a mark of distinction for
identifying promising new companies and entrepreneurs. Companies
are evaluated on quantitative and qualitative criteria, such as financial
performance, technology innovation, quality of management, execution
of strategy, and integration into their respective industries.

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