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The Rediff Interview/Dov Segev-Steinberg

Dov Segev-Steinberg Israel's consul general in Bombay, is infused with a new energy after the visit of Indian Home Minister L K Advani and External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh to his country. He was bubbling with optimism as he spoke to Roving Editor Ramesh Menon about the shape of things to come between the two countries.
Now that the ice has been broken, how do you see Indo-Israel ties in the near future?
I see a great future. In 1992, when Israel and India established formal diplomatic relations, the volume of bilateral trade between the two countries was $ 200 million. At the end of 1999, the volume of trade was $ 1 billion. The volume of bilateral trade will now increase.
In the first four months of 2000, there was a phenomenal increase of 42 per cent as compared to the first four months of 1999. This is an indicator. These figures speak for themselves. The fact that senior Indian political stalwarts like L K Advani, Jaswant Singh and Jyoti Basu visited Israel shows that the two countries are working closely to strengthen relations.
Many years ago, Israel had offered to turn the desert of Rajasthan into a green desert.
In the last 52 years, Israel has had great achievements in agriculture, mainly in the areas of water conservation and water consumption. Semi-arid land has been converted into blooming gardens. We would like to share our achievements with friends and India is one of them.
Already there are several projects going on between private companies in drip irrigation and floriculture. Till now, we have established 150 joint ventures between companies of both countries. Out of them, 50 are in agriculture. Prospects are very bright in IT, high-tech medical equipment, hi-tech telecommunication, infrastructure and so on.
Which areas will Indian businessmen benefit from bilateral trade?
One of them is Information Technology and the software industry. If companies from both countries can co-operate to work in Third World countries, we can do wonders. You see, Israel is not competing with India as far as Information Technology is concerned. We can therefore complement each other. The future is here. There is a great interest among Israeli businessmen in trade with India.
In June 2000, the heads of Exim Bank went to Israel to promote financial support for commercial activities. One of the results of the visit was that the Exim Bank of India signed agreements with the three biggest banks of Israel, Bank Hapoalin, Bank Leumi and Bank Discount. Just these three banks cover 75 per cent of the banking activities in Israel.. That is why I feel so optimistic.
Is not tourism another area?
More and more Israelis are coming to India. We now have two direct flights to Mumbai from Tel Aviv by Elal, our national carrier. Last year, we had 50,000 Israelis coming to India. As many as 16,000 Indians visited Israel, both for business and pleasure. This is a promising new area. Israel has a population of 6.2 million. But it had three million tourists in 1999. And in 2000, we expect 3.6 million tourists. India, with its beauty and variety, can easily develop its tourism. Israel is ready to share its experiences in this regard.
Israel has the technology to increase crop production. It could do wonders for India.
Already, Mashav, the international co-operation department of the ministry of foreign affairs of Israel with the Israeli embassy in New Delhi, have set up a demonstration farm at Pusa. The idea is to expose farmers in India to the different Israeli techniques in areas of soil treatment, seeds, drip irrigation and so on. With this experiment farm, we hope Indian farmers can learn and adopt our technology. The crop yields can now be increased by three times with better technology.
Israel is one of the emerging IT giants. As India is also growing in this area, what are Israel's plans?
In the IT world, the three big I's are India, Israel and Ireland. We can do wonders.
India is dogged by border terrorism. How can Israel help?
This is a terrible phenomenon. The whole world should unite to fight it. During the last 20, 30 years we had to fight terrorism in different ways. We now want to share our experiences as it will help fight terrorism.
Why do you think it took so many years for vibrant democracies to get together?
We should also look forward, not backward. The future is very promising. The two countries and their people are bound to get closer.
The Rediff Interviews
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	The Rediff Interview/Dov Segev-Steinberg Dov Segev-Steinberg Israel's consul general in Bombay, is infused with a new energy after the visit of Indian Home Minister L K Advani and External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh to his country. He was bubbling with optimism as he spoke to Roving Editor Ramesh Menon about the shape of things to come between the two countries. Now that the ice has been broken, how do you see Indo-Israel ties in the near future? I see a great future. In 1992, when Israel and India established formal diplomatic relations, the volume of bilateral trade between the two countries was $ 200 million. At the end of 1999, the volume of trade was $ 1 billion. The volume of bilateral trade will now increase. In the first four months of 2000, there was a phenomenal increase of 42 per cent as compared to the first four months of 1999. This is an indicator. These figures speak for themselves. The fact that senior Indian political stalwarts like L K Advani, Jaswant Singh and Jyoti Basu visited Israel shows that the two countries are working closely to strengthen relations. Many years ago, Israel had offered to turn the desert of Rajasthan into a green desert. In the last 52 years, Israel has had great achievements in agriculture, mainly in the areas of water conservation and water consumption. Semi-arid land has been converted into blooming gardens. We would like to share our achievements with friends and India is one of them. Already there are several projects going on between private companies in drip irrigation and floriculture. Till now, we have established 150 joint ventures between companies of both countries. Out of them, 50 are in agriculture. Prospects are very bright in IT, high-tech medical equipment, hi-tech telecommunication, infrastructure and so on. Which areas will Indian businessmen benefit from bilateral trade? One of them is Information Technology and the software industry. If companies from both countries can co-operate to work in Third World countries, we can do wonders. You see, Israel is not competing with India as far as Information Technology is concerned. We can therefore complement each other. The future is here. There is a great interest among Israeli businessmen in trade with India. In June 2000, the heads of Exim Bank went to Israel to promote financial support for commercial activities. One of the results of the visit was that the Exim Bank of India signed agreements with the three biggest banks of Israel, Bank Hapoalin, Bank Leumi and Bank Discount. Just these three banks cover 75 per cent of the banking activities in Israel.. That is why I feel so optimistic. Is not tourism another area? More and more Israelis are coming to India. We now have two direct flights to Mumbai from Tel Aviv by Elal, our national carrier. Last year, we had 50,000 Israelis coming to India. As many as 16,000 Indians visited Israel, both for business and pleasure. This is a promising new area. Israel has a population of 6.2 million. But it had three million tourists in 1999. And in 2000, we expect 3.6 million tourists. India, with its beauty and variety, can easily develop its tourism. Israel is ready to share its experiences in this regard. Israel has the technology to increase crop production. It could do wonders for India. Already, Mashav, the international co-operation department of the ministry of foreign affairs of Israel with the Israeli embassy in New Delhi, have set up a demonstration farm at Pusa. The idea is to expose farmers in India to the different Israeli techniques in areas of soil treatment, seeds, drip irrigation and so on. With this experiment farm, we hope Indian farmers can learn and adopt our technology. The crop yields can now be increased by three times with better technology. Israel is one of the emerging IT giants. As India is also growing in this area, what are Israel's plans? In the IT world, the three big I's are India, Israel and Ireland. We can do wonders. India is dogged by border terrorism. How can Israel help? This is a terrible phenomenon. The whole world should unite to fight it. During the last 20, 30 years we had to fight terrorism in different ways. We now want to share our experiences as it will help fight terrorism. Why do you think it took so many years for vibrant democracies to get together? We should also look forward, not backward. The future is very promising. The two countries and their people are bound to get closer. The Rediff Interviews Tell us what you think of this interview
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