The Bank of Israel estimates that high technology accounts for two thirds of Israeli industrial output and 80 percent of its industrial exports. With the exception of the United States, no other country in the world has managed to build a technology sector based on start-up companies rather than older, established businesses. Israeli engineers have shown a remarkable readiness to risk leaving secure jobs in big companies to form businesses of their own. Although there has been substantial liberalization in recent years, by Western standards, the Israeli government continues to be interventionist. For a few years, the state even operated a venture capital fund.
High technology can create vast wealth very quickly, sometimes in a matter of months.
Israel's development of an entrepreneurial high-tech economy over a few short years and against immense odds is a remarkable achievement. All rights reserved.