|
HAIFA (ISRAEL) - ISRAEL and Singapore are taking their long-standing relationship to the next level, this time in the fields of research and innovation.
National Research Foundation (NRF) chairman Tony Tan, who is leading a high-level Singaporean delegation here, believes that Singapore can learn firsthand from the Israelis how they have made entrepreneurship their lifeblood.
'Although Israel is a small country like Singapore, it has an extremely high level of entrepreneurship activity, mainly in the high-tech area,' said Dr Tan. 'Israel has some lessons which could be useful to us.'
At the same time, Singapore represents for the Jewish state an inroad into the emerging Asian markets, he said.
Already in the works is an exchange programme with Technion - the Israel Institute of Technology and one of the world's top science and technology research universities.
Technion was the first stop for the visiting Singapore group, which includes members of the NRF, ministry officials and representatives from institutes of higher learning.
Professor Boaz Golany, dean of industrial engineering and management at the institute, said that the entrepreneurship collaboration between the two countries would involve student and faculty exchange between Technion and Singapore universities.
Apart from helping to commercialise promising technologies and products, the programme would also look at studying entrepreneurship as an area of research.
Among the key areas of focus is how to bridge the so-called 'valley of death' - the early stages of a fragile young start-up when funding is scarce, and a realm where many promising companies the world over fail.
One of the areas Singapore is looking at, said Permanent Secretary (National Research and Development) Teo Ming Kian, is the government's role in mitigating the risk for early stage companies.
In Israel, the government's active involvement in creating a viable venture capital industry in 1993 by establishing 10 new VC funds has led to a flourishing industry.
There are presently over 70 Israeli companies listed on the Nasdaq, placing the country second after Canada in terms of non-US companies trading on the high-tech bourse.
Inroads were also made in a separate scheme in which elite international research universities can set up research centres in Singapore to work with local tertiary and research institutes.
For a start, said Technion's executive vice-president for research Moshe Eizenberg, seven of the institute's talented young faculty members would be working with their Singapore counterparts in the field of tissue engineering and regenerative medicine.
Singapore and Israel already share long-standing ties in the realms of defence and economic cooperation. Several bilateral agreements in areas such as health care, investments and technological research & development exist between the two countries.
And Israel sees this new collaboration 'as a great opportunity for our researchers to get exposure to Singapore, and we view Singapore as a gateway to China', said Mr Eizenberg.
ailien@sph.com.sg
|
