Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu will be attending the World Economic Conference in Davos, leaving Israel on Wednesday 21 Shevat 5774.

Mr. Netanyahu will address the plenum under the heading ‘Israel – Innovation Nation’ and will focus on the technological leadership of the Israeli high-tech industry with an emphasis on the cyber industry.

In addition to his speech, Prime Minister Netanyahu will attend and address sessions on the IT and cyber industries. The IT session is due to be attended by dozens of senior industrialists in the field including Cisco Chairman and CEO John Chambers. The cyber session is to be attended by dozens of corporate managers and senior government officials from countries that are active in the field.

The prime minister is due to meet with Yahoo President and CEO Marissa Mayer and with Google Senior Vice President and Chief Business Officer Nikesh Arora. In both meetings, the Prime Minister will emphasize Israeli innovation and the technological leadership of the Israeli high-tech industry in order to expand economic cooperation with the two companies.

The Prime Minister will also hold working meetings with Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott, Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi (for their second meeting in the past month) and other heads of state and government.

Prime Minister Netanyahu will be accompanied by Prime Minister’s Office Director-General Harel Locker and National Economic Council Chairman Prof. Eugene Kandel.

Prime Minister Netanyahu said, on the eve of his departure: “Israel is an exception on the Western economic scene. We have succeeded in dealing with the global economic crisis better than almost all Western countries. But we cannot rest on our laurels. We need to develop new markets and new partners and this is my goal in going to Davos. My intention is to talk with leading global high-tech companies, in the cyber and other fields, in order to tell them to come to Israel, invest in Israel and create jobs in Israel. This will be good for them and good for us as well.”

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)