It is my pleasure to open the Israeli - Romanian Agro-Technology Forum titled "Growing for the Future". This forum will focus on Israeli innovative technologies, possibilities of cooperation and development in agriculture.
Israel and Romania have had long and friendly relations for 66 years. Our bilateral cooperation is fruitful and encompasses different economic sectors.
In the last and the second Government to Government meeting held in June 2014 in Israel, both parties agreed to jointly promote innovation in agriculture, a topic which is closely linked to the global phenomenon of climate change and the need for protection of food security for future generations.
The two governments jointly decided to initiate cooperation and exchange of views in areas, such as: animal breeding, plant protection, irrigation techniques and more, based on the Memorandum of Understanding signed between the Ministries of Agriculture in 2013.
The agricultural sectors in Romania and Israel are complimentary to each other. Romania has abundant natural resources such as land and water and experience in agriculture.
As for Israel, despite the lack of resources it succeeded in providing more yield to the sector by developing know-how and innovative technologies that placed its agriculture sector among the leading countries.
The cooperation in agriculture between our two countries is one of the priorities of our Embassy. We are trying to accelerate Israeli contribution and bring know-how to Romania by working closely with partners such as the Romanian Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the Romanian Group for Investments and Consultancy (RGIC) as well with other agricultural institutes.
In this respect, I would like to bring to your attention about Agritech, the prestigious international agricultural exhibition which takes place in Israel every two years. This year, the 19th Edition of Agritech, will be held in Tel Aviv during 28 – 30 of April 2015.
In this exhibition will be introduced different fields related to agricultural technologies, including: growing and harvesting fruits and vegetables, irrigation systems, seeds, chemicals and fertilizers, organic agriculture and the mechanization. I hope that this year Romania will have a significant participation in the event, like in previous years.
I hope that more Romanian companies will be benefited in the future from Israel's innovative technologies and know-how that will bring added value to the efforts which are invested by the Romanian Government to further develop its agricultural sector.
I would like to add that, in addition to the economic components of development in agriculture there are also social aspects which are crucial. In many countries including in Israel and Romania, a strong agriculture sector will contribute to the well-being of the population which is located particularly in the periphery by employing high number of people.
Last but not least, I would like to commend the organizers of this important seminar, Mr, Gilad Peled, Ms. Otilia Manta and Mr. Matan Safran.
I hope that the agricultural cooperation between our both countries will further flourish and I look forward to seeing you all this April, in Agritech.
Vă mulțumesc.
Dan Ben-Eliezer
Ambassador