At least two countries in the world exist in the shadow of a world military power. One, Ukraine, a country with backward industry and agriculture that has turned it into a global granary. The second, Taiwan, an island country at the edge of the world, whose political leaders in the 1980s were able to initiate the development of an advanced local chip manufacturing industry, thereby turning it into the global chip barn.
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Similar to Taiwan, Israel also knew how to develop industries that would concentrate interests in it - the refineries, the Dead Sea plants, the gas rigs, the Intel chip factory, and a thriving startup industry that continuously infuses the world with innovation.
Non-stop innovation.
Intel factory in Kiryat Gat (archive), photo: None
However, in order for Israeli innovation to continue to grow and prosper even under the conditions of a global crisis, and in the face of competition from other countries, it needs a deliberate hand.
Unfortunately, although Israeli high-tech grew in the defense system and military industries, and was encouraged in the 1990s by government investment funds - too many of them rely mainly on market forces, and underestimate government support and guidance.
This disdain could jeopardize Israel's continued leadership.
The industry needs a guiding hand.
Prime Minister Netanyahu, photo: Tali Meir
A government initiative
"Without G2G there is no B2B," said John Sawada, president of NTT, Japan's largest telecommunications company, during his visit to Jerusalem three years ago - and meant to say that without governments talking to each other there would be no business.
The time has come to appoint a full-time minister who will sit in the Prime Minister's office, where the important decisions are made, and will coordinate the handling of high-tech.
Like Taiwan, Israel also needs a government initiative that will set the goals, and realize them with the assistance and cooperation of market forces and academia.
Investment in high-tech companies should be encouraged.
Kiryat Atidim, photo: Moshe Shay
Public discussion
Israel needs a minister who will jump-start technological education, whose dire state the heads of the local high-tech industry have been warning about for years.
Israel needs a public discussion, with the cooperation of academia and industry, about the issues on which it puts its cards and invests, such as the national infrastructure projects in the early days of the state.
Israel needs a minister who will help the industry in training tens of thousands of new workers, "juniors", who will help it develop technological products not only for export to the 500 largest corporations in the USA, but also for the benefit of the local society and economy.
Israel needs a minister who will encourage the local institutional investors - the pension and provident funds - to invest, not only through the stock market, in high-tech companies.
And finally, just as the Chinese and the Americans appoint emissaries to promote their business abroad, Israel also needs an array of economic annexes, who will give work in promoting deals to Israeli companies, and who will not retire after a few years to serve the other side.
This crisis is definitely an opportunity - and this time it really isn't about in a cliché.
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