Israel - Economy GDP $154.5 billion (2005 est.) GDP Growth Rate 5.2% (2005 est.) Exports $40.14 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

"Israel is the Silicon Valley of the Middle East, a country of innovators and entrepreneurs. Whether in communications, information technology, electronics, defense, security or life sciences, Israel is where you’ll find tomorrow’s technologies, today"

Did you know that Israel has:

• 3,000 technology companies seeking a presence in the US market
• More technology companies traded on Nasdaq than any foreign country, after Canada.
• More scientists and engineers per capita than any other country (135:10,000; compare US-78:10,000; Japan-75:10,000; Germany-58:10,000)
• Raised over $3.4 billion in venture capital for startups in 2000
• Free trade agreements with US, EU, Canada, Turkey, Mexico and others
• Launched satellites into space -- one of only 6 nations
• Israel is second only to the Silicon Valley in the number of start-up companies (2500 in 2005).
• In 2005, hi-tech accounted for over 50% of Israel's industrial exports.
• Israel ranks 3rd in the world in patents per capita (after the US and Japan).
• Per capita, Israel ranks 4th in the world in granted biotechnology patents.
• Israel is the world leader in medical device patents.
• With less than one tenth of 1% of the world's population, Israel accounts for 1.28% of all scientific articles world-wide.
• The amount Israel spends on R&D relative to the size of it's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is among the highest in the world: 4.6%.
• Many major US R&D operations, including: AOL, Microsoft, CA, Applied Materials, Intel, IBM, Digital, Motorola, 3Com, HP, Cisco, Bay Networks, Nortel, Analog Devices, Johnson and Johnson

.:Israels Electronics and Software Industries: Presented by IAEA
.:Investment Climate in Israel 2005