Israel's central bank has raised its economic forecast for 2010, citing an improved outlook for global growth and world trade.

The Bank of Israel now expects the economy to grow 3.5% this year, compared with its previous forecast last September of 2.5%. Earlier, Bank of America-Merrill Lynch and Bank Leumi, one of Israel's largest banks, also raised Israel's economic growth forecast for 2010 to 3.5%.  

Based on data through November, Israel's gross domestic product (GDP) in 2009 increased 0.5% from a year earlier, compared to an OECD average of negative 3.5%, the Central Bureau of Statistics said. In the third quarter, the economy expanded at an annualized rate of 3%, while from April to June it grew by 1.1%.

GDP growth per capita in Israel fell 1.3% in 2009 (compared with a 4% drop in OECD countries), while unemployment in Israel stood at 7.7% in 2009 (compared with an average of 8.2% in the OECD).

Israel's budget deficit was 5.2% in 2009, and is expected to be 5.5% in 2010. Israel's debt-to-GDP ratio increased by a very low 3%, ending the year at 78% as other countries struggled amid the international economic crisis.

For the most part, Israel weathered the world financial crisis thanks to, among other factors, a relatively conservative banking system that had little exposure to mortgage-backed assets or risky loans.

The Bank of Israel raised Israel's key lending rate to 1% in late December, after having cut borrowing costs to a record low of 0.5% in early 2009. The Bank of Israel was among the first in the developed world to raise interest rates after the global economic crisis.

International risk rating agency BDI Coface raised Israel's country risk rating by one grade to A3 from A4. Israel now has the same risk rating as the U.K., Italy and China.

The country rating upgrade, which reduces foreign trade credit insurance premiums and raises potential credit levels, could save Israeli companies up to $100 million, and will also make about 400 more Israeli companies eligible for credit from foreign suppliers.

Israel was one of very few countries in the world that managed to improve its risk rating in recent months, while the global economic crisis continued to weigh on the world's economies, Coface said.

Coface country ratings A1 through A4 enable countries to get investment and local companies to obtain credit, while ratings of B, C, and D indicate increasing risk, and concerns about default.

COFACE is number one worldwide in export credit insurance and guaranteed ratings uniting high quality partners in the field of credit information and credit insurance. BDI Coface Ltd., a subsidiary of Coface, is the leading business information company in Israel.

Sources: Port2Port, Globes.

Israel’s Weizmann Institute of Science was ranked as the second best international academic institution in which to work outside the United States by "The Scientist" magazine. Weizmann was ranked the top scientific institution outside the US twice over the past 5 years and in 2008 was followed by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Germany's Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics topped this year's rankings. Though Weizmann has a quarter of the full-time science researchers that the Max Planck Institute has (106 vs. 400), and publishes nearly a fifth of the volume of papers in life sciences (4,553 vs. 21,819), the Weizmann Institute had a higher average number of citations per paper with 29.76 compared to 28.43 at the Max Planck Institute.

The rankings are based on a survey of 2,350 readers. The annual rankings are based on several weighted categories, including collaborations, teamwork, and obtaining unique funding sources.

Telefonica Europe acquired Israeli VoIP services start-up Jajah Technologies Ltd. for €145 million ($207 million) in cash.

Jajah, which was founded in 2005, will continue to operate under its current brand, reporting to Telefonica Europe, which will be the first of the company's regional business divisions to offer seamless Jajah services to customers. Telefonica Europe operates mobile, fixed line and DSL services using the “O2” label

One of the results of Jajah's acquisition is that Telefonica, a global telecommunications operation with 260 million subscribers, will now enter the Israeli market. JaJah has an R&D center in Ra'anana with almost 80 employees and Telefonica plans to greatly expand the Israeli development center.

CA, the world's leading independent IT management Software Company, is acquiring start-up Oblicore Inc. for about $25 million.

Oblicore, which was founded in 2000, develops Service Level Management (SLM) software to improve access to business applications stored on remote servers at enterprises and telecommunications providers. The flagship product, Oblicore Guarantee™, automates, activates, and accelerates the monitoring, reporting, and management of all service portfolio and service delivery functions for enterprises and service providers.

Oblicore supports and strengthens CA's ability to set, measure and optimize service levels to meet business expectations across enterprise and cloud (Internet-based) environments.

"Oblicore's business-centric approach gives enterprises and service providers better understanding and control over the quality and value of their IT service portfolio," said Ajei Gopal, executive vice president of CA's Products and Technology Group, adding that through the acquisition of Oblicore "CA is leaping ahead in its ability to help customers optimize IT for better business results and capitalize on the emerging cloud computing opportunity."

As a long-time CA partner, Oblicore already has field-proven integrations with CA solutions. Oblicore is designed for open connectivity to virtually any data source, with integrations to business systems and application and infrastructure monitoring tools from Microsoft, Oracle, SAP, IBM, HP, BMC and other providers.

Oblicore's customers include AT&T, ABN AMRO, British Telecom, Cable & Wireless, France Telecom, ING, Lufthansa Systems, Siemens Medical Solutions, and T-Systems.

Four Israeli start-ups won the 2009 Red Herring Global 100 Awards. The winners are video conferencing solutions developer Qoof Ltd, Panaya Inc, which creates software that reduces the cost and risk of making changes to ERP systems, Internet video and P2P caching solutions developer Oversi Ltd and thin server developer MiniFrame Ltd.

The companies, which were among 16 Israeli companies to win the Red Herring Europe 100 Awards in 2009, were evaluated on both quantitative and qualitative criteria such as financial performance, technology innovation, management quality, strategy, and market penetration.

Past winners of the competition that began in 1996 include Google, Yahoo, Skype, Netscape, Salesforce.com, YouTube, and eBay.

Better Place, the brainchild of Israeli entrepreneur and ex-SAP executive Shai Agassi, raised about $125 million from HSBC in exchange for a 10 percent stake in the project, giving it a market value of $1.25 billion.

The additional $225 million will come from Morgan Stanley Investment Management, Lazard Asset Management, and Better Place's original investors, which include Israel Corp., VantagePoint Venture Partners, Ofer Hi-Tech Holdings, and Maniv Energy Capital, among others, as shareholders of Better Place.

Better Place is scheduled to have its first grid of service stations for electric cars operational in 2011 in Israel and Denmark.

Renault has publicly endorsed Better Place’s plan, agreeing to supply cars with easy-to-swap batteries and working closely with the company to reach its 2011 commercial debut. Under Better Place’s plan, consumers would buy electric vehicles made by the big automakers. The blueprint calls for thousands of conventional charge points, as well as switching stations where a robotic device could replace a battery.

NASA and the Israel Space Agency have signed a joint statement that recognizes the Israel Network for Lunar Science and Exploration (INLSE) as an affiliate partner with the NASA Lunar Science Institute.

The INLSE will bring technical and engineering expertise to advance the broad goals of lunar science at the institute. The initial focus will be on laser communications, robotics, remote sensing and other technologies for future lunar missions.

"NASA looks forward to working with this distinguished Israeli organization to benefit from our shared expertise and advance our understanding of lunar science," said NASA Administrator Charles Bolden.

"I am very excited the INLSE has become an affiliate member of the NASA Lunar Science Institute," said Ames Director Pete Worden. "The considerable capabilities of the INLSE in science and related technology development will greatly extend our institute's reach."

Sources: PRNewswire, NASA

"Waltz with Bashir," which won the Golden Globe for best foreign film in 2009, was listed as one of this decade's 100 best movies by three prominent British newspapers.

The animated memoir of director Ari Folman's experiences during the first Lebanon War was ranked 11^th by The Guardian, while The Times placed the movie 65^th, and The Daily Telegraph ranked it 68^th.

In 2009 "Waltz" was given the award for best documentary by the Writers Guild of America and was also named the best film of the year by the National Society of Film Critics.

The film uses a stunning combination of frame-by-frame and computer generated animation to create a compelling and at times surreal picture of war and the way memory plays tricks on the mind.

"Siemens and Solel are a perfect match. Solel enriches Siemens' capacities… Israeli companies are very successful, backed by years of experience, development and production of field equipment for the creation of solar energy," - Peter Loescher, president and chief executive of Siemens.

German industrial conglomerate Siemens is buying Israel's Solel Solar Systems Ltd. for about $418 million so as to expand its business with solar thermal power plants.

It is Siemens second solar power acquisition in Israel. Two months ago Siemens bought 40% of Arava Power for $15 million.

Solel's products optimally complete Siemens' current offering. With the acquisition of Solel, Siemens significantly expands its access to the product technology necessary for the establishment of solar thermal power plants, enabling it to offer about 70% of the components to its clients

"In the future, we'll be able to offer the key components for the construction of parabolic trough power plants from a single source and to further enhance the efficiency of these plants," Siemens' Renewable Energy division head Rene Umlauft said.

Unlike photovoltaic solar panels, which use the sunlight to create electricity, solar thermal power plants use the sun to heat water which then creates the steam required to power a turbine generator which produces electricity to the grid.

Solel is one of the world's two leading suppliers of solar receivers, - key components of parabolic trough power plants. The company has been active in Spain since 2006, supplying key components for 15 solar thermal power plants with a combined capacity of 750 megawatts.  The firm is also active in the US.

Israeli scientist Ada Yonath was awarded this year's Nobel Prize in chemistry for her groundbreaking work in understanding how cells build proteins. She is only the fourth woman to win the Nobel chemistry prize, and the first since 1964. Yonath is the 9^th Israeli to receive a Nobel prize.

professor, who is head researcher in the field of structural biology and biochemistry at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, shares her prize with UK scientist Venkatraman Ramakrishnan and American Thomas A. Steitz.

Yonath, who pioneered research of ribosome crystallography over a 25-year period, has revealed the modes of action of over 20 different antibiotics that target bacterial ribosomes, thereby identifying how bacteria become resistant to antibiotics.

"These models are now used by scientists in order to develop new antibiotics, directly assisting the saving of lives and decreasing humanity's suffering," the Nobel committee said.

Yonath has won many prizes for her work including the Israel Prize in chemistry, the Wolf Prize in chemistry, and the L'Oreal and UNESCO Life's Work Prize for women in science. She was also the first Israeli biologist to work with NASA, sending research material to outer space and contributing her expertise on 12 NASA missions.

The IMF in its World Economic Outlook Update said it expected Israel’s gross domestic product to contract by only 0.1% in 2009, and grow by 2.4% in 2010.

Only five other developed economies are forecasted to do better

The IMF in its World Economic Outlook Update said it expected Israel’s gross domestic product to contract by only 0.1% in 2009, and grow by 2.4% in 2010.

Compared with other developed economies, the IMF’s forecast for Israel’s GDP in 2009 is better than its forecasts for all other developed economies, including the US (-2.7%); the Euro Bloc (-4.2%); Germany (-5.3%); Japan (-5.4%); South Korea (-1%), and Singapore (-3.3%).

IPTV chip developer Sigma Designs Inc., of Milpitas, California, is buying Israeli software maker CopperGate Communications Ltd. for $160 million in cash and stock.  The purchase signals the intent of the semiconductor maker to strengthen its presence in the networked home-entertainment market.

"Our acquisition of CopperGate's leading home and MDU solutions further strengthens our opportunities in this market … CopperGate has proven itself a leader in the IPTV market," - Sigma's CEO Thinh Tran

IPTV chip developer Sigma Designs Inc., of Milpitas, California, is buying Israeli software maker CopperGate Communications Ltd. for $160 million in cash and stock.  The purchase signals the intent of the semiconductor maker to strengthen its presence in the networked home-entertainment market.

CopperGate's systems allow broadband digital content to be distributed over coaxial, phone and power cables in the home. Sigma makes chips for television set-top boxes and Blu-ray DVD players.

Mentor Graphics Corporation signed a definitive merger agreement acquiring Israel's Valor Computerized Systems Ltd. for $82 million.

Valor is a leading global provider of productivity improvement software solutions for the printed circuit board, or PCB, manufacturing supply chain. Valor’s solutions target three key segments in the PCB manufacturing market: design of the physical layout of the PCB, fabrication of the bare PCB, and assembly of PCB components.

Minister of Industry, Trade and Labor Binyamin Ben-Eliezer and New York Governor David Paterson signed a memorandum governing an industrial R&D cooperation agreement between Israel and New York State.

The agreement, which is the first of its kind ever made by New York State, sets up a financing mechanism for joint R&D projects between Israeli and New York companies, thereby establishing an incentive for partnerships.

Objectives of the agreement include the strengthening of knowledge and technology ties between Israel and New York State, the broadening of bilateral commercial relations, and help for ventures to obtain financing.

Patent applications recognized in Israel will be accepted internationally as well

Patent applications recognized in Israel will be accepted internationally as well

The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), a specialized agency of the United Nations, has recently recognized Israel as an international center for the search and testing of patents.  Israel will be added to the list of 15 leading countries in this field.

The decision, which constitutes an international recognition of Israel’s abilities in the field of technology, will help promote important international projects, allow groups outside of Israel to apply for patent testing in Israel and, upon approval, receive international recognition for the patents.

European pharmaceutical company Chiesi Group is supporting Israeli lipid molecule developer High Tech Lipids (HTL) to help commercialize an innovative lipid emulsion HTL developed for preterm newborns.

"We are confident that, once fully developed and registered, this innovative lipid emulsion will significantly contribute to the improvement of clinical nutrition of preterm newborns," said Dr. Paolo Chiesi, Chiesi Group Vice President and R&D Director.

The new lipid molecule is an advanced solution to the problem of intravenous lipid infusions as it prevents severe side effects and meets all of the premature infant’s nutritional needs.

HTL was founded in 2004 by experts in biotechnology research and clinical nutrition. The Company operates within the framework of the Misgav Venture Accelerator technology incubator and has received funding from the Office of the Chief Scientist of the Israeli Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labor, the Trendlines Israel Fund and private investors.

The Chiesi Group was founded in Parma, Italy in 1935 and is a research-focused international company developing innovative pharmaceutical solutions.

NovoCure, Ltd., an Israeli medical device company focused on non-invasive cancer treatment, recently received financial funding from Pfizer Inc, Johnson & Johnson Development Corporation and Index Ventures.

Pfizer previously made a direct investment in Quark Pharmaceuticals Inc., and also established several joint ventures with Israeli diagnostic companies.

Johnson & Johnson Development Corporation has already invested in several Israeli medical devices start-ups, including Mazor Surgical Technologies Ltd., Medigus Ltd., Aposense Ltd., BrainsGate Ltd., and Omrix Biopharmaceuticals Inc., which it acquired last year at a value of $465 million.

NovoCure will use the proceeds to finance the continuation of the trial of its Novo-TTF device, a non-invasive portable medical device for the treatment of cancer. The device is being tested as a treatment for a type of brain cancer.

The Novo-TTF device is a unique cancer treatment that uses specially tuned, low intensity electrical fields (Tumor Treating Fields or TTFields) to disrupt cell division. Rapidly dividing cancerous cells are affected by the TTFields while healthy, non-dividing cells are not affected, yielding a targeted treatment with minimal side effects.

"The NovoCure TTF therapy is a completely novel approach to fighting cancer," said Bill Burkoth, Director of Pfizer Ventures. "Pilot clinical trials suggest that TTF therapy plus chemotherapy has the potential to significantly improve patient survival.”

"As opposed to others who ask what Israel can do for them, I ask what we can do in order to better exploit Israel's innovative and technological potential. How could we make faster use of the technological innovations here so as to mutually profit. We would like to contribute more to Israeli start-ups as we are very satisfied with the level of innovation here" Obermann said.

Deutsche Telekom Chief Executive René Obermann said his company planned to expand its R&D center in Israel and increase its investment in Israeli companies. Deutsche’s Israeli R&D center is its second largest R&D center in the world.

"We are interested in expanding our R&D center at Ben Gurion University. We intend to double our R&D fund in Israel – the results here are very encouraging," said Obermann. "In addition we have three projects with young technology start-ups. We are delighted with the projects that come out of Israel and are seeking innovation in the fields of network security and IPTV technology," said Obermann.

Deutsche will increase its R&D staff to at least 150 employees and relocate to the new high-tech park being build in Beer Sheva. Many companies are expected to follow suit driven by among others a new framework through which the government now also provides employment grants for foreign-owned R&D centers and large enterprises established in the Galilee and Negev.

Three Israeli artists working internationally were included in Flash Art magazine's list of the "Top 100 Emerging Artists" in the world.

Three Israeli artists working internationally were included in Flash Art magazine's list of the "Top 100 Emerging Artists" in the world.

Keren Cytter, a visual artist who works in Berlin, is ranked number 2, while Elad Lassry, who works primarily in film and photography in Los Angeles, shares the sixth position with a Georgian artist. Ohad Meromi, an Israeli who resides in New York, is ranked at 89.

The October issue of the magazine also includes extensive coverage of Israeli art, and features works by Israeli artists commissioned exclusively for the magazine.

According to the magazine’s critics, Cytter's narratives, although extremely fragmented, have a tendency to embody the post-modern self-awareness of the characters in her films, which have been shown in museums and galleries around Europe. The photographs, films, and collages of Elad Lassry are warm and direct, generic, clean, and above all open to interpretation.

The list was compiled from answers to a questionnaire sent to over 100 museum directors, curators and critics.