PM Netanyahu's Speech at the World Economic Forum

PM Netanyahu's Speech at the World Economic Forum:

Why Israel Is Innovation Nation - Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (Prime Minister's Office)

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the World Economic Forum at Davos, Switzerland, on Thursday:

• The concentration of exceptionally gifted hi-tech start-up companies in Israel is a function of five things:
  
  1. A curse has been turned into a blessing: our defense needs. We have
     had to have a very robust defense, so we take the best and the brightest
     of our young people in the military, and we put them in our various
     operations. This produces knowledge workers and knowledge entrepreneurs
     who are very gifted.
     
  2. Research. We have excellent research institutions and
     universities that produce an inordinate share of Nobel Prize winners for
     Israel. We also spend 5% of our GDP on R&D, the highest number of
     any country.
     
  3. A special culture. The Jewish people have always treasured
     education and knowledge. In ancient times we were effectively the only
     literate people and that brought us through the Middle Ages and into
     modern time with literacy. In addition, the Jewish people were always
     asking questions, truth was never finite. That questioning mind is
     something that is in our culture and adds very much to our capacities.
     
  4. Size: we're very small, the size of New Jersey or Wales. So
     everything is close by and everyone is close to everyone else. Everybody
     competes with each other and collaborates with each other. There is an
     ongoing, vibrant cross-fertilization.
     
  5. We have no choice, we had to innovate. We didn't have abundant
     natural resources. We were outnumbered; we were facing constant threats.
     Our neighbors even imposed upon us an economic boycott. Some world
     powers imposed upon us a weapons boycott. We had to innovate to survive.
     
• The birth of modern Israel was an innovation. The rebirth of
  the Hebrew language was an innovation. The rebirth of agriculture in our
  land was an innovation.
  
• These
  five factors have created a unique situation where we produce more
  conceptual products per-capita than any other country on Earth.

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