In a historic precedent setting event Chinese President Jiang Zemin spent six days in Israel. The Chinese in the past three years have
expanded their local embassy facilities, which are now scattered at several locations in Tel-Aviv. The Israel High Tech & Investment Report is
an acknowledged source of information since the Embassy of China is one of many foreign embassies in Israel that subscribe to our Report.
Before the Chinese President's visit, our editorial staff was asked to supply the Chinese with information on technology incubators, industrial
parks and on Israel's Law for the Encouragement of Capital Investment.
There was an air of controversy surrounding the execution of a five-year-old contract for the supply of sophisticated early warning airborne
equipment. The US, which was aware of the contract from its inception, following changing policies related to the Taiwan-China issue, has
asked the Israeli Government to refrain from completing the contract. During the visit the Chinese President made no public mention of the
issue.
Though actively touring throughout the country he did find time to visit two internationally successful high-tech companies. One of these is
Comverse Technology, (whose shares are one of the components of the Israel-High-Tech & Investment Report Model Portfolio) and ECI
Telecom.
Not too many years ago we heard in hushed tones of ECI Telecom's tentative steps in China which began with the positioning of telephone
conversation multiplying equipment on China's aged telecom lines. ECI Telecom's China exports have reached several tens of millions of
dollars.