Mayor’s mission to strengthen London’s ties with Israel

The Mayor of London will head to Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories next week (9 November) in a bid to strengthen their ties with the capital. On a three day trade mission to Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and Ramallah he will tell business leaders, key investors and senior politicians that London’s incredible depth of skills, vibrant communities and worldwide links should make it their first choice of economic partner.

The Israeli economy is renowned for its high tech capabilities and the UK has become Israel’s largest trading partner in the European Union. With just a two hour time difference to London the Mayor believes the capital is in prime position to build on links that saw more Israeli firms go public on the London Stock Exchange last year than from any other country outside the UK.

While in the Occupied Palestinian Territories the Mayor will highlight a shared spirit of entrepreneurship between London and the Palestinian business community. In the first six months of 2015 exports from the United Kingdom to the Palestinian territories increased by 400 per cent compared to the same period the previous year and Palestinian exports the other way increased by 127 per cent. The Mayor will be keen to learn how London can play its part in helping those economic links continue to flourish.

The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, said: “We’re heading to a region with enormous potential for stronger links with London. This visit will be a fantastic opportunity to explore the possibilities of building the long term relationships and partnerships that will create opportunities for our businesses to prosper.”

In Tel Aviv the Mayor will be accompanied by representatives from 15 London tech firms, all of whom are looking to boost their bottom line by partnering with Israeli tech experts. The Mayor will attend events at Tel Aviv Stock Exchange and Google Campus where he will be looking to encourage even more of Israel’s tech businesses to list or grow globally through the city. He will also meet with Mayor Ron Huldai, who is serving his fourth consecutive five-year term as Mayor of Tel Aviv and aims to position the city as a global centre of innovation and creativity.

While in Tel Aviv the Mayor will host a business reception for up to 300 representatives of the local business community including many potential investors in London. He will also meet with former President Shimon Peres at the Peres Centre for Peace in Jaffa. In front of an audience of 200 young Jewish and Arab Israelis they will take part in a conversation about how leadership and innovation can shape the future.

The second leg of the Mayor’s visit will see him in Jerusalem and the Mayor will visit Yad Vashem, Israel’s official memorial to the Jewish victims of the Holocaust, where he will lay a wreath in the Hall of Remembrance and visit the Children’s memorial. He is also expected to meet with senior Israeli politicians and view a demonstration of pioneering cyclist and pedestrian detection technology developed in Jerusalem by an Israeli company but now being used to help improve safety in London.

While in Jerusalem the Mayor will take part in a football training session with a group of young Jewish and Arab footballers who are part of a programme supported by the British Embassy that aims to promote stronger sporting, social and educational values. The Mayor will also fulfil an invitation to deliver the inaugural address of the Winston Churchill Memorial Series to an audience of around 200 people, with a speech that is expected to link to innovation.

With economic links between the UK and the Occupied Palestinian Territories prospering the Mayor will visit Ramallah to learn about the potential for London to benefit from those links. He will attend an event with the Palestinian Business Women’s Forum and he will meet the first Palestinian female Governor in the region, Dr Leila Ghannam, who is the Governor of Ramallah and Al Bireh plus other senior politicians.

While in Ramallah the Mayor will drop in on a workshop being delivered by a firm of architects from north London who are working with the Office of the Quartet to help Palestinian engineers, developers, contractors and investors in Palestine develop and deliver affordable housing. He will also meet with a group of young Palestinians who have developed a programme that aims to bridge the gap between decision makers and ordinary citizens, before he hosts a business reception in East Jerusalem for Palestinian businesses, banks and experts in the region.

Tom Hatton, Chief Executive of RefME, one of the tech firms from London heading to Israel with the Mayor said: “It’s incredibly exciting to be part of this mission, and I think that RefME is in a very good position to demonstrate how a London technology company can compete on the global stage. Over 400 million students around the world have to validate and reference their work, and we’re helping them cite anything in a click through our technologies. RefME’ goal is to connect the world’s knowledge by mapping out citation data firstly in academia, then in the enterprise market beyond education.”

“London is a fantastic base for our headquarters and that’s not going to change, but there is also great support from bodies such as the Mayor’s Export Programme to help British companies to make the biggest possible impact in global markets. We participated in a trade mission to the US last year and are now excited to join the Mayor on this trip to Israel.”