PM Netanyahu: “Our two peoples are two peoples with a glorious past, a difficult in-between period and then soaring to the future. I think that we can greatly enhance this future by our cooperation.”
(Communicated by the Prime Minister's Media Adviser)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, today (Wednesday, 8 May 2013), was welcomed by Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang at an official ceremony in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing and later said at the start of their meeting:
"I want to repeat my congratulations to you on assuming the important role of Premier of China.
We admire China. We have a connection with Chinese civilization, with the Chinese people. Our two peoples are two peoples with a glorious past, a difficult in-between period and then soaring to the future. I think that we can greatly enhance this future by our cooperation.
My main message in this visit is that Israel can be a perfect junior partner for China in the pursuit of economic excellence and competitive advantage by offering our technological capabilities. We're a small country, but we have a great concentration of technological prowess in many disciplines and I think we can cooperate by scaling up these technologies for the benefit of both countries.
May I add that this is my second visit to China. Fifteen years apart, my delegation and I are enormously impressed by what we see here, by the spectacular success of China in so many spheres and understand that it's important for us to discuss with you how we can cooperate not only on economic and technological issues but also the pursuit of peace."
PM Netanyahu Meets with Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing
(Communicated by the Prime Minister's Media Adviser)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, this evening (Wednesday, 8 May 2013), in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, met with Chinese Prime minister Li Keqiang, after having been welcomed in an official ceremony that included an honor guard.
At the working meeting between the two prime ministers, it was agreed to establish a joint working team to prepare a strategic plan on cooperation in the civilian sphere to include – inter alia – water, food and health systems management technologies. For the Israeli side, the team will be headed by National Economic Council Chairman Eugene Kandel.
Prime Minister Netanyahu invited the Chinese Prime Minister to visit Israel along with ministers of his government and said that he would convey to Israeli ministers the invitation to visit China and would encourage them to do so in order to advance bilateral cooperation.
After the meeting, Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang invited Prime Minister Netanyahu to dinner. The latter said after the meeting, "This was a very important meeting in advancing cooperation between Israel and china. China is a vast market and if we even slightly increase our market share here it will significantly help the Israeli economy."
Agreement signed on expanding the Israeli-Chinese Financial Protocol by $400 Million
(Communicated by the Prime Minister's Media Adviser)
At the working meeting today (Wednesday, 8 May 2013), between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang, Finance Ministry Accountant-General Michal Abadi-Boiangiu signed an agreement with the Chinese Finance Ministry on expanding the amount provided for in the bilateral financial protocol by $400 million.
The protocol is a bilateral financial agreement that allows for the growth of Israeli exports to China by means of state guarantees in support of long-term export deals. In this framework, exporters' financing costs go down, which makes Israeli deals more attractive and allows Israel to stay relevant and interesting in the sphere of international exports.
Up until today, the State of Israel – via the office of the Finance Ministry Accountant-General – has signed three financial protocols with China worth $1.35 billion. In 2012, an additional financial protocol was signed on water-saving technologies in agriculture worth $300 million. Expanding this protocol will increase the financial protocols' worth to $2.05 billion. Since the signing of the financial protocols with China, 236 deals worth $771 million have gone forward. Given the success of exports under the protocols and in light of the almost full utilization of the current protocol, the Israeli and Chinese finance ministries today signed an agreement to expand the amount.
Prime Minister Netanyahu said, "This is a very important agreement for expanding bilateral cooperation. China is a vast market and if we even slightly increase our market share here it will significantly help the Israeli economy."
Finance Ministry Accountant-General Abadi-Boiangiu said, "Expanding the protocol symbolizes the enhancement of economic relations between the two countries in recent years. We see that the pace of permits from the Chinese side has grown and the number of projects that come to us for approval does not stop growing. We also see new groups that are using the protocol, inter alia, thanks to the agreement that we signed regarding water technologies. By means of the financial protocol, which constitutes an attractive financing cushion, Israeli exporters are succeeding in competing for and winning major tenders with the Chinese government. This is increasing the scope of Israeli exports and also the GDP by increasing employment and tax revenues.