(Communicated by the Ministry of Economy)

On Friday, 21 November 21 2014, Israel reached an agreement with the World Bank's Transport and ICT Global Practice. The agreement will focus on sharing best practices in the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) sector with developing country policymakers and World Bank staff. It will include a number of activities including training courses, cyber-security technical assistance and analytical work. Through this agreement, for the first time, the Israeli Ministry of Economy will be contributing half a million dollars to strengthening ICT knowledge in developing nations.
 
"Israel is a World Bank graduate. We received the last loan from the Bank in the mid-1970s," said Israel's Minister of Economy, Naftali Bennett. "Today we are proud to join the contributing countries to the Bank and to share our expertise, knowledge and innovation with developing countries. This agreement will create a great collaborative platform that will contribute to strengthening our relations with developing countries and will create opportunities for sharing Israeli expertise and technologies."   
 
As the representative of the Foreign Trade Administration at the Israeli Ministry of Economy, the trade mission at the embassy of Israel in Washington, D.C. has been in discussions with the Bank's ICT Unit for the past two years exploring how Israel's experience in the ICT Industry and innovation could be shared with client countries. This agreement is a product of those discussions.
 
"The World Bank is keen to connect global expertise with clients. Israel is a leader in information technologies and their applications to areas like agriculture, irrigation, and cyber security," said Pierre Guislain, Senior Director of the World Bank's Transport and Information & Communications Technology (ICT) Global Practice. "We are very happy that Israel has chosen ICT as the topic for its partnership with the Bank."
 
Under this agreement, three training courses are expected to be held in Israel in the next two years. The planned training courses will focus on ICT and water, ICT and agriculture and ICT and cyber-security. In addition, the agreement will include technical assistance on cyber-security, a visit to Israel by a panel of World Bank experts, and analytical contributions to the World Bank's flagship report, the 2016 World Development Report, with a focus on the internet.
 
"This agreement is an important step towards enhancing our cooperation with the World Bank," said Ohad Cohen, Director of the Foreign Trade Administration at the Israeli Ministry of Economy. "It will strengthen our efforts in supporting Israeli activities in the developing world. We hope that the future brings more exposure for Israeli best practices, and we thank the Bank for its partnership."
 
The World Bank is a multilateral development institution providing loans and grants to fight poverty in developing countries. In 2013, the Bank invested an estimated US$ 56.2 billion. The Bank's portfolio of active projects with ICT components has grown from about US$500 million in 2006 to approximately US$1.7 billion in 2014.  Israel has been a member country since 1953 and holds 0.32 percent of World Bank shares. It is represented by the Bank of Israel in the shareholders board. The last World Bank loan to the country was provided in 1975, and closed in 1981.