Itongadol.- Israel and China are set to sign an agreement Tuesday instituting a 10-year, multi-visit visa that is expected to greatly facilitate both business and tourist travel between the two countries.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will sign the agreement with visiting Chinese Vice Premier Liu Yandong, here as head of an 80-member Chinese delegation to take part in the second annual Israel-China Committee for Cooperation in Innovation.
The last meeting, which is the annual equivalent of the government-to-government meetings Israel holds with countries such as Germany, Italy, Greece, Cyprus and Bulgaria, was held in Beijing in January, 2015.
The annual meetings underline the growth in ties between the two countries, with total trade in 2015 reaching more than $9 billion, as opposed to $4.5b. in 2007. In addition, about 25% of foreign investment in Israel\’s high tech sector comes now from China or Hong Kong.
Hagai Shagrir, the director of the Foreign Ministry\’s Northeast Asia department, said Liu is one of four vice premiers in China, and the highest ranking women official in the country. She is responsible for innovation, technology, education and health, and innovation was at the top of the agenda of the country’s recently unveiled 13th five-year plan.
“The Chinese see Israel as a partner who can help in innovation, so that is a connection that is very important,” he said. Explaining the importance of these types of meetings, Shagrir said that the way to move things forward with China is through these types of “institutionalized platforms.”
Shagrir said that the agreement allowing for a 10-year multi-entry visa will be the first such arrangement Israel has with another country, and the third for China, which also has this arrangement with the US and Canada.
“When a Chinese tourist or businessman looks where to travel, he looks for two things: where it is easiest in terms of visas, and if there are direct flights with a Chinese airline,” Shagrir said.
The new visa regime will make it much easier to obtain a visa, and in another three weeks China\’s Hainan Airlines will open a direct line from Beijing to Tel Aviv. Hainan will fly to Israel three times a week, augmenting El AL, which already has three direct flights a week to Beijing.
In addition to the visa agreement, a number of other agreements are also to be signed. One agreement will increase substantially the number of scholarships for Chinese students to study here, a program that could bring hundreds of students from China to Israel\’s higher education institutions.
Another agreement governs the establishment of Israeli innovation centers in China in the spheres of agriculture, public health, education and entrepreneurship. The value added for Israel as a result of these centers is that they will exposes the Chinese working in these fields to Israeli technology and know-how that they otherwise might not have known about.
Another agreement will establish a program to bring some 1,000 young Chinese leaders over the next three years from government, the Communist party, businesses and think tanks to Israel on seven to 10-day programs to expose them to the country.
Liu, who was last in Israel in 2014, will be accompanied by three ministers, nine deputy ministers and 14 university heads. She is arriving from Egypt, and will also go to Ramallah during her trip here.