Jihadists Are A Major Threat To Israel'

'Israel would make Iran and its proxies pay. They, along with Qatar, fund terror all over the world.'

Nir Barkat, Israel's minister of economy, was in India this month to promote bilateral trade.

Barkat, a former paratrooper in the Israel defense forces, met ministers, chief executives and representatives of industry associations to explore how the two countries' companies could collaborate.

Barkat, in an interview with Shivani Shinde and Dev Chatterjee/Business Standard in Mumbai, spoke about how Israel promotes business and its target of $1 trillion exports in the next two decades.

What steps is Israel taking to make its 10,000 startups successful?

The mentality or DNA of an Israeli is to never lose and that is the DNA of our startups too.

When we come up with a new idea, we have to be successful. We will make sure of opening every door to make it happen.

And when doors are closed, we will enter via windows or tunnels but we have no other option but to be successful.

What's your plan to increase trade between India and Israel?

We export goods worth $160 billion each year, while India exports approximately $800 billion or so. But we are 150 times smaller than India.

My goal is to take that $160 billion to $1 trillion worth of exports within the next 15 to 20 years.

The way to do that is to have more collaboration around the world.

We want to open up Israeli entrepreneurs to expand their access and develop new business models, and we want to understand from them and the global businesses what Israel should do more.

What are the main takeaways from your visit to India?

Many businesses in India have very good relations with Israel. One of the companies we met was 63 Moons which is into cybersecurity, and they are collaborating with Israel companies.

We have 860 companies in the space of defence and cybersecurity. Israel is well known for cybersecurity innovation and we are looking for collaborations in this field.

How do you plan to do that?

We have been working with Professor Michael Porter of the Harvard Business School and they have mapped out competitive clusters in Israel.

This is not just about companies, but connection and access to research, academic tie-ups and infrastructure.

We are accelerating the strength of these clusters to make it work easier for global collaboration.

For instance, the agro technology cluster has three segments: Agrotech that focuses on increasing yield for farming; foodtech is about food, and aquaculture is about creating opportunities for fisheries.

This is one area where even India is interested. One of the academic institutes of Israel has created a protocol for increasing the production of sea bass (a fish).

They have been able to increase the survival rate of the eggs by 30 per cent and this protocol is being used in several countries.

Now, they are creating a protocol to domesticate bluefin and yellowfin tuna. We would need partners to scale this.

I am amazed at the scope and scale of the growth of India, and the strength of Indian technology developing.

As Israel and India have good relationships and trust, we have big opportunities.

We also welcome Indian labour to Israel. At present we have 12,000 Indians working in Israel.

We had around 120,000 Palestinians working for us so far. After the October 7 attack, we want to replace Palestine labour with labour from friendly countries.

The average salary in Israel is $54,000 compared to $2,000 in India.

We are looking to hire around 200,000 people in Israel and we would welcome both skilled and unskilled labour from India to work in Israel.

Artificial intelligence is the world's new buzz word. How are you planning to build on Israel's capabilities in the IT sector?

We have learned from the cluster approach that we need to create an AI cluster. Israel has 10,000 startups.

In the digital world, we are ready to open up our digital records for research and development.

Soon after the Adani Group acquired Haifa Port, war broke out between Israel and Hamas. How do you plan to protect Indian investments in Israel?

There is no difference between an Israeli business and a foreign business in Israel. We have the same level of security for all.

In the last quarter, we saw 3.8 per cent growth in trade despite security challenges. Israel is very resilient.

Unfortunately we were caught by surprise when Hamas attacked on October 7 last year, but we have regrouped and fought back.

Israel would make Iran and its proxies pay. They, along with Qatar, fund terror all over the world.

How do you look at US President-elect Donald Trump's statement asking Hamas to release all Israeli hostages?

The very clear message sent by President-elect Trump is that we will be bad with the bad guys and good with the good guys.

This is the new world order, which is a good thing. We have seen how different countries have aligned to the new order.

There is a clear division between countries who support terror and others who are democratic States, and those who want to destabilise countries, and those who support peace and stability.

This is a great opportunity for India and Israel as we are on the right side of the equation of the Americans.

Unfortunately, our neighbours are very hostile. Jihadists led by Iran and Qatar are a major threat to Israel. We have to outsmart everyone.

Feature Presentation: Aslam Hunani/Rediff.com