International Trade Secretary Rt. Hon. Liam Fox MP celebrated flourishing UK-Israel trade ties and praised Israeli innovation, during International Trade Questions in Parliament yesterday.
The International Trade Secretary underlined: “It is worth pointing out that Israel is an extraordinarily innovative country and has more start-ups per capita than any other country on the planet. Where we can get UK businesses across a range of sectors to get access to such innovation, it is always a positive outcome”.
In response to a question from Philip Hollobone MP on what steps he is taking to encourage trade co-operation between the UK and Israel in the sectors of information technology and agricultural technology, Dr Fox said: “The UK and Israel have an important trading relationship in information and agricultural technology, which we are strengthening through our dedicated trade promotion team at our embassy in Tel Aviv. We have established a UK-Israel tech hub, which helps to create partnerships between British companies and innovative Israeli technology businesses”.
Michael Fabricant MP said that “the latest computers used in the House of Commons use Intel 7 and Intel 8 cores and above, and Shazam, Skype and FaceTime all use technology developed in Israel”. He asked the International Trade Secretary “what more are we doing to encourage that sort of co-operation, particularly in relation to computer technology?”
Dr Fox said in response that “the key to that is the UK-Israel tech hub. This relates not only to the area of computers, which my hon. Friend has mentioned, but to FinTech, cyber-security, biomed, retail technology and the creative industries. These are all prime areas for co-operation between the United Kingdom and Israel, and we should celebrate that relationship and the benefits that it brings to both our populations”.
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