Cooperation Between Israel, UAE And Bahrain on Startup Development for Future Industrial Buildup

CONTENTS:

·???????Improving Relations Between Israel and The UAE And Bahrain Bode Well for International Trade in Agriculture and Agri-Tech

·???????UAE Seeks Staggering $1 Trillion In Economic Ties with Israel Over Next Decade

·???????Diamonds And Energy

·???????Just The Beginning

·???????Watergen Signs Deal with UAE’s Al Dhara to Sell ‘Water-From-Air’ Units to Region

·???????Aleph Farms Gets $105 Million Investment to Bring Lab-Grown Steaks to Market

·???????Pluristem And Abu Dhabi Stem Cells Center Sign MOU To Collaborate in The Development of Cell Therapies and Regenerative Medicines for The Treatment of Severe Diseases Including COVID-19

·???????Israel Expects $220 Million In Non-Defense Trade with Bahrain in 2021

·???????What Kind of Industrial Cooperation Will Improved Israel-UAE Relations Produce?

Improving Relations Between Israel and The UAE And Bahrain Bode

Well for International Trade in Agriculture and Agri-Tech

Last year’s establishment

of the Abraham Accords between Israel and the UAE and Bahrain (later joined by

Morocco and Sudan) signified a turning point and opportunity for international

trade and foreign direct investment in the Middle East.?

Despite its small size of around 8.6m people, Israel is known

globally as a Startup Nation, a home to innovation and technology. It has the

most start-ups per capita and is the second biggest spender globally on

research and development.

Non-profit Startup Nation Central states that a combination of

government support, lessons learned from limited resources and a strong tech

sector has helped maintain the country’s position as a leader in agriculture.

In a Forbes list compiled by SVG Ventures-Thrive, 20 per cent of the world’s

top 50 Agri-tech firms were Israeli, including DouxMatok, InnovoPro and

Hinoman.

The UAE and Bahrain, like much of the Gulf region, are undergoing

large economic diversification programs, and agriculture and wider

sustainability play a major role in that. The UAE once imported 90 per cent of

its food. However, a drive to increase food sustainability has seen the

development of greenhouses in the UAE to produce more fruits and vegetables locally,

including tomatoes. Last April, the Abu Dhabi government announced it was

investing US$100m in vertical farming. Given that Israel is a global leader in Agri-tech,

the UAE stands to benefit from the transfer of knowledge, ideas, and best

practices, as it seeks to build up its agriculture industry virtually from

scratch.

Around 60 per cent of Israel’s agricultural exports, including

tomatoes and watermelons, come from the Arava region in the southeast of the

country. There, with its limited water and poor-quality soil, conditions are

similar to the UAE. The UAE’s commitment to food security is shown by the role

of the Food Security Minister, a position held by Mariam Al Mehairi. Signs of

collaboration with Israel were evident after comments made by the director

general of the Israeli Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr Nahum

Itzkovich.

"The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development was one of

the first ministries to initiate official contacts with the Ministry of Food

Security so as to examine additional ways to deepen economic ties in general

and expand new exports from Israel to the UAE in particular,” he said.? It

is clear that the seeds are being planted for Israel and parts of the Middle

East to both share knowledge and boost trade and investment through agriculture

and Agri-tech.

UAE Seeks Staggering $1 Trillion In Economic Ties with Israel Over Next Decade

A year into the Abraham Accords, trade between countries

hits over $600m in 1st half of 2021; investors say big opportunities still

ahead. A year after the

photo-ops in Washington DC and the breathless reports from the footsteps of the

Burj Khalifa, the United Arab Emirates believes that economic activity with

Israel could reach more than $1 trillion over the next decade.

That stratospheric figure

was touted this week by Emirati Minister of Economy Abdulla bin Touq Al-Marri

during a virtual event marking the first anniversary of the Abraham Accords,

the historic US-brokered agreement that normalized ties between Israel and the

UAE, quickly followed by Bahrain, Sudan, and Morocco.

While Israelis have long

maintained quite commercial and security ties with the UAE, the normalization

agreement was seen as a potential economic boon, with increased access to the

global business and shipping hub of Dubai, on top of tourism and energy.

The emirate minister noted that Israel and the UAE have already

signed off on?over $600 million?in bilateral trade for the first half of this year in areas

like food, agriculture, healthcare, aviation, water, and energy, as well as

dozens of MOUs (memorandums of understanding) that outline existing and future

deals. A year after the accords, “we have a story [to tell], and the major

story is that we exchanged ambassadors, we have signed over 60 MOUs, we have

$600-$700 million of bilateral trade happening; we are moving into so many

areas of economic opportunities. “We’re looking to create over a trillion

dollars of economic activity with Israel over the next decade,” he added.

There is a lot of daylight between $1 trillion and $600 million,

but the minister said that the opportunities “are endless,” especially after

the COVID-19 health crisis abates. “The next years will see more influx of

trade,” he offered, citing the upcoming?Expo

2020 in Dubai?starting in October where there

will be “lots of opportunities to establish links for trade and business.

The Expo is set to draw thousands of participants from across the world for

business and cultural events, including an Israeli delegation of some 250

entrepreneurs and businesspeople hosted by the Israel Exports Institute and

Bank Hapoalim. “The Abraham Accords are still young, still robust, and we are

still working together to push forward the economic agendas,” bin Touq Al-Marri

explained.

Diamonds And Energy

According to data from the

Israel Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) cited by the Exports Institute and

the Federation of Israeli Chambers of Commerce, bilateral trade between Israel

and the UAE between January and June 2021 amounted to roughly $610 million.

More than half of this trade has been in diamonds. Of the $210 million in

Israeli exports to the UAE in 2021, 70 percent ($150 million) were in diamonds

alone, and the remainder in industrial trade (metals, plastics, industrial

machinery, electronics and telecommunications, transportation, and logistics).

Israel’s imports of diamonds

from the UAE in 2021 amounted to $190 million with an additional $210 million

in industrial trade, for a total amount of $400 million in imports. Crucially,

the $610 million total in trade does not include tourism or “services,” a loose

term used in the data that includes Israeli technology services like

cybersecurity and artificial intelligence, and for which CBS did not release

information.

But high-tech exports make up a significant portion —?11.6% in 2020, or roughly $43.4 billion, according to the

Israeli Ministry of Economy — of all Israeli exports and are a key factor

driving growth in the Israeli economy. The scale of deals and investments in

the private sector is difficult to gauge at the moment. But the expected flow

of investment capital from the UAE to Israeli startups hasn’t materialized just

yet. A?$3 billion trilateral fund?for private sector-led investment and development

initiatives for regional economic cooperation announced by the US, Israel, and

the UAE as part of the accords has largely not been brought up since. There was

indeed a slew of announcements following the signing of the accords, some

involving government agencies or government-owned companies. These included

agreements on?water research and

technologies,?biotech

R&D,?agriculture technologies,?banking services,?food technologies,?telemedicine corporations?and?medical devices, among many others.

One Israeli AI drone company, Percepto, recently signed a deal

to?monitor and secure?critical infrastructure operations in the UAE, including

solar energy plants and oil fields, while Ai robotics, a developer of a

drone-in-a-box will?help law enforcement

reduce response times?at the Dubai Expo

2020. One of the biggest Israel-UAE deals so far, also not included in the

official figures because it is a commercial agreement, was the roughly?$1 billion purchase?by the UAE government-owned Mubadala Petroleum of a 22%

percent stake in Israel’s Tamar offshore gas field by Delek Group. The agreement

was finalized this month.

Just The Beginning

Dorian Barak, an Israeli

investor who has been active in the Gulf region for over a decade, told The

Times of Israel in a phone interview this week that of the dozens of MOUs

signed in the past year “maybe 20 percent have led to real business” but it’s

still early days. Barak co-founded the?UAE-Israel Business Council?last

year with Fleur Hassan-Nahoum, the deputy mayor of Jerusalem, to bring together

entrepreneurs, businesspeople, government officials and NGOs looking to advance

economic and social opportunities between the two countries. The council has

some 4,000 registered members, he said.

He estimated that by the

end of 2021, Israel and the UAE will have reached $1 billion in trade,

including services and tourism. So much of the economic activity is done

quietly, Barak indicated. “About 40 Israeli companies have set up shop in

UAE?free-trade zones?[Hebrew] and over 200 companies have local representatives

in the country in areas like agriculture, jewelry, food, retail,” Barak said,

adding that he thinks that figure will grow to 500.

The bigger story, he said,

is that the UAE is a “launching pad” for Israeli businesses and this is where

tremendous opportunities lie. A year after the photo-ops in Washington DC and

the breathless reports from the footsteps of the Burj Khalifa, the United Arab

Emirates believes that economic activity with Israel could reach more than $1

trillion over the next decade. That stratospheric figure was touted this week

by Emirati Minister of Economy Abdulla bin Touq Al-Marri during a virtual event

marking the first anniversary of the Abraham Accords, the historic US-brokered

agreement that normalized ties between Israel and the UAE, quickly followed by

Bahrain, Sudan, and Morocco.

While Israelis have long

maintained quite commercial and security ties with the UAE, the normalization

agreement was seen as a potential economic boon, with increased access to the

global business and shipping hub of Dubai, on top of tourism and energy. The emirati

minister noted that Israel and the UAE have already signed off on?over $600 million?in bilateral trade for the first half of this year in areas

like food, agriculture, healthcare, aviation, water, and energy, as well as

dozens of MOUs (memorandums of understanding) that outline existing and future

deals.

A year after the accords, “we have a story [to tell], and the

major story is that we exchanged ambassadors, we have signed over 60 MOUs, we

have $600-$700 million of bilateral trade happening; we are moving into so many

areas of economic opportunities,” bin Touq Al-Marri?said?on Monday. “We’re looking to create over a trillion dollars

of economic activity with Israel over the next decade,” he added. There is a

lot of daylight between $1 trillion and $600 million, but the minister said

that the opportunities “are endless,” especially after the COVID-19 health

crisis abates. “The next years will see more influx of trade,” he offered,

citing the upcoming?Expo 2020 in Dubai?starting in October where there will be “lots of

opportunities to establish links for trade and business.”

The Expo is set to draw

thousands of participants from across the world for business and cultural

events, including an Israeli delegation of some 250 entrepreneurs and businesspeople

hosted by the Israel Exports Institute and Bank Hapoalim. “The Abraham Accords

are still young, still robust, and we are still working together to push

forward the economic agendas,” bin Touq Al-Marri explained. People walk by the

Israel Diamond Exchange center, in the central Israeli city of Ramat Gan,

December 9, 2020. (Miriam Alster/Flash90) The scale of deals and investments in

the private sector is difficult to gauge at the moment. But the expected flow

of investment capital from the UAE to Israeli startups hasn’t materialized just

yet.

A?$3 billion trilateral fund?for private sector-led investment and development

initiatives for regional economic cooperation announced by the US, Israel, and

the UAE as part of the accords has largely not been brought up since. There was

indeed a slew of announcements following the signing of the accords, some

involving government agencies or government-owned companies. These included

agreements on?water research and

technologies,?biotech

R&D,?agriculture technologies,?banking services,?food technologies,?telemedicine corporations?and?medical devices, among many others. Watergen’s president and CEO, Michael

Mirilashvili (right), and Khadim Al Darei, vice chairman and co-founder of

Al-Dahra in Abu Dhabi, Nov. 25, 2020.

One Israeli AI drone company, Percepto, recently signed a deal to?monitor and secure?critical infrastructure operations in the UAE, including

solar energy plants and oil fields, while Airobotics, a developer of a

drone-in-a-box will?help law enforcement

reduce response times?at the Dubai Expo

2020.

One of the biggest Israel-UAE deals so far, also not included in

the official figures because it is a commercial agreement, was the

roughly?$1 billion purchase?by the UAE government-owned Mubadala Petroleum of a 22%

percent stake in Israel’s Tamar offshore gas field by Delek Group. The

agreement was finalized this month.

A general view of the Marina district towers is seen from the

observation deck of ‘The View at The Palm Jumeirah’ in Dubai, United Arab

Emirates, Tuesday, April 6, 2021. (AP Photo/Kamran Jebreili)

Dr. Sabah al-Binali, the

UAE-based head of the Gulf operations for Israeli crowdfunding VC company

OurCrowd, told The Times of Israel in a Zoom interview on Tuesday that the UAE

“has a comparative advantage in Africa and Asia,” with solid business and

investment ties in these continents for decades. For Israel, the UAE should be

seen “not just as a destination but as a gateway,” he explained. “The ability

to ideate products [and technologies], that is a global advantage for Israel.

The UAE is a commercial hub that knows how to take things global,” said Dr.

al-Binali, adding the phrase “start-up in Israel, scale-up in the UAE.”

Watergen Signs Deal with UAE’s Al Dhara to Sell ‘Water-From-Air’ Units to Region

Water-from-air startup?Watergen?said Sunday it has signed a strategic partnership with

Emirati firm?Al Dahra?to export the Israeli solutions to the UAE and other

regional countries. The accord was signed last Wednesday in Abu Dhabi by

Watergen’s president and CEO, Michael Mirilashvili, and Khadim Al Darei, vice

chairman and co-founder of Al Dahra. The partnership will target a variety of

sectors, including agriculture, offices and apartment buildings, hotels, and

industrial plants, Watergen said in a statement. The two parties had signed a

memorandum of understanding in Israel in October, when a high-ranking

delegation of Al Dahra executives visited Israel.

Israel and the UAE?normalized?relations in September, as did Israel and Bahrain, paving

the way for open business and trade ties in which technology will play a key

role. Watergen?has developed a patented technology that enables the

generation of clean drinking water in a cost-effective energy consumption

manner. It uses a series of filters to purify the air. After the air is sucked

in and chilled to extract its humidity, the water that forms are treated and

transformed into clean drinking water. The technology uses a plastic heat

exchanger rather than an aluminum one, which helps reduce costs; it also

includes proprietary software that operates the devices. The high temperatures

and humidity of the UAE are ideal conditions for Watergen’s devices, which can

produce up to 5,000 liters of clean drinking water per day, the company said in

a statement.

Al Dahra is an Abu

Dhabi-based multinational company, specializing in agribusiness and the

cultivation, production, and trading of animal feed and other food commodities

and end-to-end supply chain management. Serving a global customer base in the

public and private sectors, and with a workforce of 5,000 employees, the firm

operates in over 20 countries and caters to more than 45 markets. In January,

Watergen’s GENNY product was named winner of the Energy Efficiency Product of

the Year in the 2020 Smart Home Mark of Excellence Awards at CES in Las Vegas.

Aleph Farms Gets $105 Million Investment to Bring Lab-Grown Steaks To Market

Aleph

Farms, a maker of?cultivated meat?that grows steaks from modified

cattle cells, said Wednesday it has raised $105 million in a Series B funding

round from investors.

The round was led by the growth fund of L Catterton, a US-French consumer-focused

private equity firm with over $30 billion in equity capital, and DisruptAD, the

venture capital arm of the Abu Dhabi holding company ADQ. The round also saw

participation from Skyviews Life Science as well as a consortium of global food

and meat companies including Thai Union, BRF, and CJ CheilJedang. Existing

investors VisVires New Protein, Strauss Group, Cargill, Peregrine Ventures, and

CPT Capital also participated in the latest round, bringing the funds raised by

the startup to date to more than $118 million, the company said in a statement.

Aleph

will use the funds to advance the global commercialization of its cultivated

beef steaks and expand its portfolio of products ahead of its planned market

launch in 2022, the company said. To produce its meat, Aleph leverages the

ability of animals to grow tissue muscle constantly and isolates the cells

responsible. It then reproduces the optimal conditions for these cells to grow

into tissue, basically growing meat outside the animal. Disrupt Ad's investment in Aleph Farms aims to help bolster Abu

Dhabi’s long-term focus on food resilience, the statement said. As strategic

partners, DisruptAD and Aleph Farms will mull setting up a manufacturing

facility in Abu Dhabi to supply its cultivated meat products across the UAE and

the broader GCC region, the statement said. DisruptAD invests in startups and

venture capital funds and sets up new incubators and accelerators to help Abu

Dhabi become a destination for startups and to accelerate the development of

its own innovation ecosystem. DisruptAD invests across the UAE as well as other

global markets including the Middle East and North Africa, India, China,

Southeast Asia, and the United States. The VC fund aims to support and nurture

over 1,000 startups by 2025, the statement said. This additional capital from

top-tier partners with unparalleled experience and expertise brings us

significantly closer to our vision of providing secure and unconditional access

to high-quality nutrition to anyone, anytime, anywhere,” said Didier Toubia,

the co-founder and CEO of Aleph Farms.

Mansour AL Mulla, chief investment officer of DisruptAD, said Aleph Farms is the firm’s first Israel-based partner, and added that the partnership “underpins our long-term desire to accelerate the path for technology pioneers and change leaders that are building technologies of tomorrow.” Aleph Farms was founded in 2017 by Toubia, The Kitchen Hub of the Strauss Group, and Prof. Shulamit Levenberg from the Biomedical Engineering Faculty at the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology.

Pluristem And Abu Dhabi Stem Cells Center Sign MOU To Collaborate in The Development of Cell Therapies and Regenerative Medicines for The Treatment of Severe Diseases Including COVID-19

HAIFA, Israel,?August?17,?2020?–?Pluristem Therapeutics Inc.?(Nasdaq: PSTI) (TASE: PSTI), a leading regenerative medicine company developing a platform of novel biological therapeutic products, announced today its subsidiary, Pluristem Ltd., has signed a non-binding Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the United Arab Emirates-based Abu Dhabi Stem Cells Center (ADSCC), a specialist healthcare center focused on cell therapy and regenerative medicine. Executives from both companies took part in a signing ceremony held via video conference between Israel and the UAE. The aim of the collaboration is to capitalize on each company’s respective areas of expertise in cell therapies to deliver regenerative medicine for the benefit not only of the citizens of the UAE and Israel, but for humanity as a whole. The collaboration between the parties was initiated by the Better Alternatives advisory firm. The parties have agreed to exchange research results, share samples, join usage of equipment and testing, and other essential activities related to advancing the treatment and research of cell therapies for a broad range of medical conditions, including COVID-19.

ADSCC has been treating COVID-19 patients with stem cells sourced from the patient’s blood, by returning the cells back into the patient’s lungs as a fine mist through a nebulizer, a machine that helps a patient breathe in medicine through a mask or mouthpiece. Pluristem has treated patients with its placental PLX-PAD allogenic product via compassionate use programs in Israel and the U.S. and is currently conducting phase II studies in the U.S. and EU.

“We are extremely proud to partner with our colleagues at the ADSCC by sharing knowledge and expertise that we believe will advance healthcare within and across our borders. We see life science and regenerative medicine as a bridge for building peace, prosperity, and well-being in our region and for the entire world. I believe it is our obligation and privilege as business and scientific leaders to lead the way forward to strengthen collaborations and promote innovation and education. We are honored to be on the front line of this historical moment,” stated Pluristem CEO and President Yaky Yanay.

Israel Expects $220 Million In Non-Defense Trade with Bahrain in 2021

Israel foresees $220 million in non-defense trade with Bahrain in 2021, the Economy Ministry said on Wednesday as it hosted a delegation from the Gulf state to cement newly established ties.

Bahrain and neighbor the United Arab Emirates normalized relations with Israel on Sept. 15, a US-brokered pact motivated by business prospects as well as shared worries about Iran.

Meeting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem, Bahrain’s minister for industry, commerce and tourism, Zayed bin Rashid Al-Zayani, said he saw an “immense opportunity to even develop (ties) further, not just in terms of business; ?in terms of culture, sport, exchange, tourism.” The Economy Ministry trade forecast anticipated growth in Israeli exports to Bahrain of diamonds and refined metals for chemicals, and of imports of oil and aluminum from Bahrain.

Bahrain and Israel signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) in the field of tourism on Wednesday.?“Tourism in Bahrain is one of the active sectors endowed with developed infrastructure thanks to the great interest of the government”,?Al-Zayani said.?

Al-Zayani said the agreement with Israel would contribute to enriching the tourism sector.?

Israel’s Minister of Tourism Orit Farkash-Hacohen said that cooperation between the two countries in this field would lead to more prospects for joint work.

What Kind of Industrial Cooperation Will Improved Israel-UAE Relations Produce?

“It is monumental for both Israel and the UAE that they are now on an unprecedented path to normalization. How this might or might not affect the?UAE defense sector?in the short to medium term is far from certain,” said Aram Nerguizian, a senior associate with the Arleigh A. Burke Chair in Strategy at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “There are certainly areas where industry in both countries will have a desire to collaborate, explore cost, and access sharing tied to research and development, let alone explore opportunities for equity and ownership in leading defense firms in both countries,”

“Cybersecurity is one of the areas which could witness industrial cooperation between the UAE and Israel, and the latter have a strong edge in this area, also in unmanned autonomous systems, unmanned aircraft, missile defense, electronic systems and system integration. These are all areas where there is potential cooperation,” said Riad Kahwaji, a Dubai-based Middle East security and defense analyst who and serves as director of the Institute for Near East and Gulf Military Analysis. Opportunities are also stem from the fact that the two countries use similar platforms, like the F-16 fighter jet and Patriot missiles. And as both nations view Iran as a security threat, that common adversary could drive cooperation, Kahwaji noted.

“Certainly, that can change from a U.S. policy perspective if the Trump administration weighs in, if it is reelected for a second term. However, doing so would go against Israel’s larger concerns that have less to do with the UAE and more to do with concern that if the UAE gets the platform, it will only be a matter of time before Saudi Arabia and eventually Egypt seeks to acquire it as well,” the analyst added. “That is not something Israeli policymakers are all too comfortable with in the here and now. I should caveat that how that dynamic evolves in the medium to long term is far more uncertain. Both Israel and the UAE have reasons to deepen mutual trust and cooperation beyond narrowly balancing or containing Iran. Whether that level of cooperation extends to the F-35, or similar so-called ‘game-changer’ systems is not something we can clearly predict.”

“Certainly, that can change from a U.S. policy perspective if the Trump administration weighs in, if it is reelected for a second term. However, doing so would go against Israel’s larger concerns that have less to do with the UAE and more to do with concern that if the UAE gets the platform, it will only be a matter of time before Saudi Arabia and eventually Egypt seeks to acquire it as well,” the analyst added. “That is not something Israeli policymakers are all too comfortable with in the here and now. I should caveat that how that dynamic evolves in the medium to long term is far more uncertain. Both Israel and the UAE have reasons to deepen mutual trust and cooperation beyond narrowly balancing or containing Iran. Whether that level of cooperation extends to the F-35, or similar so-called ‘game-changer’ systems is not something we can clearly predict.”