Israel and Morocco have been engaging in increased business collaboration since December 2020, when the Israel-Morocco normalization agreement was signed, opening a world of opportunities between the two countries from direct flights to economic cooperation and innovation collaboration. The latter point is the focus of the Morocco-Israel Connect to Innovate forum taking place in Casablanca from May 23-26.
The first-of-its-kind forum, coordinated by Israel’s Start-Up Nation Central and CPR in close collaboration with the General Confederation of Moroccan Enterprises, will introduce top Israeli entrepreneurs to the Moroccan market, aiming to increase bilateral trade and provide technological solutions to some of the North African country’s biggest pain points. Moroccan and Israeli leaders from governmental institutions, major companies and tech innovators will be brought together to focus on technological innovations across the sectors of AgriFood, water, logistics, energy and sustainability.
The primary objective of the event is to build a strong foundation for business opportunities through tech innovation, with the secondary objective of exploring the potential for creating tech jobs in Morocco. Start-Up Nation Central executives have already been invited to Morocco to meet with senior leaders and strategize together about how to accomplish these goals.
The three-day conference will feature keynotes from speakers including Dganit Vered, investor, board member, business leader and mentor with senior management experience with Intel, Perrigo and Hazera in innovation, engineering, R&D, operations and projects; Nadav Berger, an early food-tech pioneer, co-founder of the Foodlab application lab, Foodlab Capital and the first VC in the Israel FoodTech scene; Ido Yosovzon, Start-Up Nation Central’s AgriFood-Tech Sector Lead; and Yosef Abramowitz, named by CNN as one of the top six Green Pioneers worldwide, former president of the Arava Power Company and current CEO and president of Energiya Global.
Israel has been busy in the international business collaboration field lately, having also made moves to tighten its new relationship with the United Arab Emirates following the signing of the historic Abraham Accords.
During a conference focusing on UAE-Israeli collaboration, Dr. Sabah al-Binali, partner and executive chairman of OurCrowd Arabia - the Gulf-based branch of the Israeli VC fund - spoke to the importance of recognizing the cultural differences between Israel and its potential business partners, and understanding that the two-sided nature of that observation.
“People talk about the differences a lot, but if there's a lot of differences, that means there's a lot of complementary facets,” he said. “It's all about identifying those and figuring out how to work together with them.”