The Israel-Czechia Innovation Ecosystem

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SHOW NOTES:

00:00:59 – At this time he already advocated for the independence of the state for Jews.

My pleasure and honor to speak about a topic that is truly a passion of mine and that is Israel and connection to Czechia. If you allow me, I’ll use this short name, which is also the same in Hebrew, because my country has gone through some rebranding and there is a lot to talk about because Czechia is known as Israel’s best lie in Europe. Certainly within the EU.

My country and my government, either left or right. One thing have in common that they persistently advocate for Israel. Going back to history, I come from track. Many of our listeners know that the golden city of spirals and it’s also a city known for Czech, Jewish and German presence. The Czech Jewish and later German symbioses has been there for a while.

The founder of Czechoslovakia, Thomasgirik Mazarik, our first president, he went to Palestine in 1927 as the first European statesman. And at this time he already advocated for the independence of the state for Jews. There is a long history, we all know that Israeli war of independence in 19 four was won by Czechoslovak arms and thanks to the training of the army that my country provided.

 

00:09:48 – Israel being strategic partner stayed and remained as a cornerstone of Czechoslovakia.

that during the Communist period when Czechoslovakia lost its foreign sovereignty, basically for time being, we had to cancel our ties with Israel because it was all run from Moscow and orchestrated from Moscow.

And after the Velvet Revolution, after 1989, our President Thomas Garrigue Masaryk, in his New Year’s speech after he was released from prison and elected as a president, he mentioned Israel as a strategic partner and rewing Czechoslovak Israeli ties was one of his priority. And since then, for more than 30 years, as I said, Israel being strategic partner stayed and remained as a cornerstone of Czechoslovakia and now Czech foreign policy after these two countries separated.

But not only that, imagine that last week there was an article in Jerusalem Post mentioning event that took place this year in May when we were commemorating Israeli Independence Day, that for two days the biggest island of Prague was, I would say, secured for events to get check.

People knowing Israel better. Israeli Embassy here in practice did an amazing job. More than 150 people came to learn about Israel, about the Hebrew language.

 

00:28:23 – The Czech language is difficult. It’s a country of 10 million.

Czechia is per capita most welcoming country for Ukrainian refugees. So again, something I am proud of. We have about 400,000 people coming from Ukraine. These are registered.

So actually the numbers are a bit higher, and it’s 10 million population. So it’s quite a chunk of population that came and that we had to absorb.

We did not have that much bait from, let’s say, Islamic countries like Germany had from Syria and Afghanistan, because we are Slavic country. These people don’t have families there. There are no extended families.

The Czech language is difficult. It’s a country of 10 million. So to learn Slavic language, to adopt themselves, germany was number one stop for them right now. For the same reason I mentioned for Ukrainians checking out together with Slovakia, Poland and Romania, other border countries, is a destination country for Ukrainians.

 

00:34:47 – What I can speak of is that the very many Israelis come to Prague and they choose Prague as a place where to live, because Prague was recently voted, as I believe number four.

It’s also perhaps a reason why Czechs are tolerant, because religion actually does not play a big role in our life. And there was this big Communist gap lasting more than 40 years and before there was World War II. So when people are coming into politics, it’s more for they then stand for rather than identifying themselves as Jewish. So people know that. But it’s not the number one argument.

What I can speak of is that the very many Israelis come to Prague and they choose Prague as a place where to live, because Prague was recently voted, as I believe number four. Number six depends on what chart the most favorable city to live in. And also they establish their businesses. And it starts from real estate, hospitality, financing, investment.

Exactly. Your audience.

But of course, Cybersecurity. And we are slightly moving to all areas of cooperation that the Czech Israeli Mutual Chamber of Commerce is proud to promote. And I actually would like to challenge our listeners to write to me if they come up with an area that has not been developed.

And if it has not been developed, then I’ll help them. But from Cybersecurity and Defense Corporation and Czech Republic, Czechia being a member of NATO, we actually bought some strategic defense system from Israel because simply, they are the best.

 

00:40:16 – How our government is trying to attract more foreign investors.

I am a businesswoman myself, so I see how it has improved a lot. Okay. How our government is trying to attract more foreign investors. I see that we are trying to get people, even the officials, even the clerks, knowing a bit of English.

I think Prague is truly comfortable city for expats. Could it be improved? Yes. The corruption. I mean, name one country that does not have a problem and it’s not a Scandinavian country. Okay.

The bureaucracy always it can be improved. But again, for example, the deputy Prime Minister responsible for regional development and also digitization, which falls onto this agenda, went in June to Cyberbase, to Tel Aviv to get illustration how we can move e government and Esociate. So I see also plenty of opportunities there.

 

00:48:46 –  Israel is a country to turn to not only with drip irrigation, but also with advanced farming.

It’s water, it’s agriculture, it’s climate change, it’s food sustainability. Right now, I don’t know about the US.

But all European continents is facing unprecedented heat wave like this week, and particularly today, it’s just boiling hot and it will be getting worse.

So again, Israel is a country to turn to not only with drip irrigation, but also with advanced farming, advanced use of different pesticides and so on. So the whole corporation in agriculture is again an area that plenty of things are happening.

 

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