Yair Ofek, deputy director general and director, Hi-Tech Division, the Israel Export & International Cooperation Institute,

Following a seminal event in Seoul, ICT cooperation between Korea and Israel looks set to be launched in services such as home network services, RFID-based services, Internet telephony (VoIP) and in the Broadb3 infrastructures of next-generation mobile communications, intelligent service robotics, home network embedded S/W, digital contents, and telematics. Yair Ofek, deputy director general and director, Hi-Tech Division, the Israel Export & International Cooperation Institute, cited the Korea-Israel IT Forum held Jan. 17 at the Grand Hyatt Seoul as the kind of event that could spark Korea-Israel synergy in the field of information technology. From the Israeli side, he said, areas of excellence include first of all telecommunications networking and network management, billing, Internet, video and image processing, wireless, satellite communications, access networks, broadband and photonics, network security and VPNs, messaging, and home networking, Mr. Ofek explained. He further named computerized production equipment and imaging, software, semiconductors and photonic components, and defense systems including missiles, anti-missiles and guided weapons, radars, EW (Electronic Warfare), simulation and training. The Israeli executive mentioned that Korean household broadband penetration stood at 57% as of June 2003, way ahead of other countries such as the USA (20%), France (7%), and Italy (5%). Regarding the Israeli ICT sector in 2004, Mr. Ofek said the proportion of Israeli GDP generated by ICT grew from $3 billion in 1990 to $15 billion in 2004 of which $12.9 billion were exports sales. Israel is one of the most active places in the world for start-up creations, with over 1,000 created annually. Mr. Ofek claimed that these start-ups exemplify Israeli innovative, technology-intensive activity, and represent numerous technology breakthroughs. Mr. Ofek said major Israeli R&D effort in ICT was focused on establishment of the infrastructure for next-generation technologies, which currently include digital wireless, satellite systems, broadband and optical technologies, Internet and multimedia, telemedicine, microelectronics, and network management. Against such a backdrop, he said he foresaw possibilities of business cooperation between Korea and Israel in the fields of joint-venture production and R&D, strategic partnerships, M&A, marketing to third countries, and establishing production in Israel to export to the EU and USA, duty free. He then cited the leading multinational telecom companies that have invested in R&D and manufacturing in Israel: Bell South, Deutsche Telecom, 3-Com, ADC, Alcatel, France Telecom, Hutchison-Hong Kong, America Online, Cisco, Compaq, Sprint, Telecom Italia, Ericsson, Intel, Lucent, Motorola, Nortel, to mention just a few. Mr. Ofek gave a briefing in his presentation about 3G regulation, saying that in the coming years 3G UMTS networks will be able to offer Internet access of up to 2Mb/s and a wide variety of services and contents including multimedia applications such as games and videos. He explained why today there is no debate about the economic rationale of establishing 3G networks: the equipment is cheaper than its GSM counterpart was at the initial stage of development. He said 3G may prove to be an ideal medium through which to increase broadband penetration because cellular use is much higher per capita than that of computers. In reply to a question as to whether will 3G succeed in Israel, Mr. Ofek replied that the country is well suited to adopt the standard given the fact it is relatively wealthy, technology literate, has a high level of mobile penetration -- together with a high degree of foreign investment in the mobile market.