GMCC’s Israel mission to boost trade, business ties with South Florida businesses
A few weeks ago, the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce’s Americas Linkage mission to Israel co-led by the Honorable Daniella Levine Cava, Mayor of Miami-Dade County, offered a unique opportunity to meet talented business leaders, learn about new opportunities, exchange ideas and forge relationships enabling business and community growth across South Florida.
The Americas Linkage program is designed for groups and companies who conduct or desire to conduct international business aiming at new market opportunities in an increasingly competitive global economy. In addition, these missions strengthen the economic and trade relationship for the state of Florida. This was The Chamber’s first mission to Israel since 2019 and the first one after the pandemic.
Some of the mission’s significant accomplishments included:
Federation of Israeli Chambers: The Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce and the Federation of Israeli Chambers of Commerce signed a Memorandum of Understanding to develop trade and business relations between the two chambers in order to establish a sustainable mechanism of dialogue and platform for discussions.
Port of Haifa agreement: Mayor Daniella Levine Cava was joined by Eshel Armony, Chairman of the Port of Haifa; Mendi Zaltzman, CEO of Haifa Port Company; and Eric Olafson, PortMiami Director of Global Trade and Business Development, in the signing of a renewed Sister Seaport Agreement, fortifying their commitment to collaborate in initiatives to increase cargo and cruise activity between PortMiami and the Port of Haifa.
Mobility Insight: Mobi's system covers the full operational cycle from data fusion to traffic plan automation - by using artificial intelligence, predictive simulations and IoT with connected-vehicle technology, it enables policy makers, transportation planners and traffic controllers to pinpoint bottleneck emergence, disseminate traffic load buildup and preempt gridlocks.
Insightec: Dr. Maurice R. Ferre welcomed mission delegates to Insightec to showcase their latest advances in healthcare. For hundreds of years, surgeons have been using invasive surgery to remove diseased tissue. While it’s been the standard method for millions of patients, there is a new wave in healthcare. With Insightec technology, sound waves are used to precisely target and ablate tissue with no incisions, little to no risk of infection, and patients often go home the same day, giving healthcare professionals a revolutionary approach to improving patient lives.
Israel Institute of Technology: Technion partnered with FIU. A science and technology research university, among the world’s top ten, dedicated to the creation of knowledge and the development of human capital and leadership, for the advancement of the State of Israel and all humanity.
For more than 30 years, the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce has organized a series of outbound and inbound missions to and from select markets around the world facilitating business ties between Florida, Latin America and the Caribbean, and the rest of the world. “Survey results showed that 56% of the delegates that joined in the mission, reported they made a business connection with one or more companies in Israel. The delegates believe the trade mission will lead to revenue production for their company,” said Alfred Sanchez, president and CEO of the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce. “Additionally, almost 89% of respondents believe they made a prospective business connection with one or more of their US colleagues by attending the trip with them. These types of results are positive indicators that trade missions help boost business and trade ties with other countries.”
Relations with Israel are a very important factor in the U.S. government’s overall foreign policy in the Middle East. The U.S. Congress has likewise placed considerable importance on the maintenance of a close and supportive relationship. Israel was the United States’ 24th largest goods export market in 2019. Israel’s $100 billion economy is larger than all its abutting neighbors combined. It has the highest standard of living in the Middle East. It also has the highest per capita home computer ownership.
