PHL, Israel sign business deals worth nearly $83M

Philippine firms signed $82.9 million in investment deals with Israeli companies on the penultimate day of President Rodrigo Duterte's four-day trip to Israel.

More than 20 investment commitments presented during the business forum attended by Duterte covered fields such as shipping, information technology, arms manufacturing, tourism development, and food distribution; and were expected to generate 790 jobs for Filipinos.

The agreements included:

• a memorandum of agreement between Century Properties Inc. and Globe Invest Inc. on a joint venture for advanced energy optimization management, advanced agriculture and farming, prefabricated housing, water desalination, and other master-planned real estate development projects;
• memorandum of agreement between Stone of David Corporation and Gaia Automotive Industries Ltd.  on the marketing and promotion of tactical vehicles, including technology transfer;
• memorandum of agreement between Stone of David Corporation and MCTECH RF Technologies Ltd. in the development of military and intelligence products and hardware;
• memorandum of understanding between Century Pacific Food, Inc. and Kvuzat Yavne on the distributorship of canned tuna products for the Century brand in Israel and Palestine;
• memorandum of understanding between Integrated Computer Systems Inc. and Verint Systems Ltd. to explore mutually beneficial opportunities for collaboration on security, intelligence data mining and information technology;
• memorandum of understanding between the Philippine Center for Entrepreneurship Foundation-Go Negosyo and Israel-Philippines Chamber of Commerce/Israel Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines on the establishment of a partnership to jointly develop and undertake programs, projects and advocacy initiatives related to the Mentor ME (micro entrepreneurs) Program;
• memorandum of understanding between the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Federation of Israeli Chambers of Commerce on exchange of information about commerce, industry market updates and identification of business and trade opportunities;
• memorandum of understanding between the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry-National Capital Region and Jerusalem Chamber of Commerce on promotion, strengthening and expansion of trade, economic, scientific and technological cooperation and other business relations between member organizations of the two parties;
• memorandum of understanding between the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority and Eilat Port Company on the promotion of the all-water route between Subic Port and the Eilat Port (located at the northern tip of the Red Sea) to support trade and investment;
• memorandum of understanding between AMA Education System and Hacker U on cooperation to develop cyber security-related certification courses in the Philippines;
• memorandum of understanding between Le Soleil Shipping Agencies Inc. and ZIM Integrated Shipping Services Ltd. on collaboration to provide additional ships/vessels to service the country's local and international shipping requirements;
• memorandum of understanding between Armscor Global Defense, Inc. and EMTAN Karmiel Ltd. on transfer of know-how and technology in order to enable Armscor to create a manufacturing facility of weapons in the Philippines under the license from EMTAN;
• memorandum of understanding between KEREM IT Solutions and Carbyne Ltd. on vending agreement for the local partner to promote and sell the other party's products;
• memorandum of understanding between KEREM IT Solutions and SuperCom on vending agreement for the local partner to promote and sell the other party's products;
• letter of intent from Amdocs Philippines Inc. to expand operation in software development and support service as the Philippines becomes its hub in the Asia Pacific region;
• letter of intent from TrueLogic Online Solutions Inc. to expand operation in software, systems development, and support services;
• letter of intent between Silver Shadow Advanced Security Systems and Rayo Illuminar Corporation to explore opportunities in manufacturing and refurbishment of small arms and ammunition, together with Filipino partner, Rayo Illuminar;
• letter of intent from MIMA TECH on expansion of operations in the field of agriculture, and waste water and sewerage treatment projects;
• letter of intent between Raphael Ben-Hur Consulting and Management Ltd. and ABS Gen Herbs International Corporation on interest to be the exclusive distributor of ABS herbal food supplements in Israel;
• letter of intent from FlyEast Philippines (FEPPY Inc.) on expansion of Philippine operations on tourism development;
• letter of intent from FoodLab Capital on building the FoodTech Acceleration Center within the Cagayan Special Economic and Freeport to service the food industry locators of the Cagayan Economic Zone Authority; and
• letter of intent between Assuta Medical Center and I-DEA Ventures Group Inc. on building a state-of-the-art medical center inside the Cagayan Special Economic and Freeport to service the medical needs of the locators of the Cagayan Economic Zone Authority.

In a meeting with Israeli President Reuven Rivlin prior to the business forum, Duterte had said that the Philippines would like to further strengthen its cooperation with Israel, particularly in the area of trade and investments.

"There are a lot of opportunities. Israel can help us on this," Duterte told Rivlin.

On Wednesday, Duterte will fly to neighboring Jordan where business leaders from both countries will meet to explore ways of increasing two-way trade and investments.  — DVM/MDM, GMA News