China's Zhongguancun Science Park (Z-Park) in Beijing, known as "China's Silicon Valley," will open a liaison office in Tel Aviv, Israel's financial center.
The announcement of the planned liaison office was made in a meeting held on Sunday between Yin Hejun, a vice mayor of Beijing, and Doron Sapir, deputy mayor of Tel Aviv. A senior delegation from Beijing which included high-level executives of the Z-Park attended the meeting.
"Beijing and Tel Aviv, like China and Israel, are completely different in size, but share many common values: adopting technology and modernization, cherishing education, and striving to always improve our municipal systems," Sapir said.
"In recent years, we've seen dramatic increase in the number of delegations and visits from Beijing to Tel Aviv and vice versa," Sapir added.
Beijing and Tel Aviv have been sister cities for the past two decades, while in recent years the cooperation between the cities has increased dramatically in areas such as technology, education, and culture.
"We are thrilled to announce this liaison office in Tel Aviv, which is the center of the Israeli ecosystem, as another step in the cooperation between our cities," Yin said, calling the Z-Park as "home to innovation and breakthrough technologies."
The two sides hoped the new office will serve as a platform for firms of the two countries to seek business opportunities in each other's market, and a link of communication and cooperation between them.
The Z-Park is the leading scientific, education and talent base in China. As the most dynamic hub for innovation and entrepreneurship in China, it caters for nearly 20,000 hi-tech enterprises, including tech giants like Lenovo, and some top Chinese universities.
Last year, the combined turnover of the hi-tech industries in the Z-Park exceeded 5 trillion yuan (almost 800 billion U.S. dollars), Yin said.
He added that it is "the innovation and openness to new ideas of Tel Aviv" that attracted the Z-Park to open its 11th overseas liaison office there.
