by Xinhua writer Chen Wenxian

JERUSALEM, Sept. 19 (Xinhua) -- China's first provincial-level innovation center was opened Wednesday for trial operation in the Israeli central city of Tel Aviv, with the aim of working as a bridge and platform to further enhance the innovation cooperation between China and Israel.

The Israel Jiangsu Center, an innovation hub, is expected to help both Israeli startups and Chinese companies which are interested in joining hands with Israelis firms to cooperate in the innovation sector.

During the inauguration ceremony, the Israel Jiangsu Center signed an agreement respectively with the Israeli Zilker company, which is devoted in the research and development of robot technology, and the Israeli Startupeast incubator company. The two will become members of the center.

The establishment of the center will become an important bridge for the innovation cooperation connecting China and Israel, said Cui Yuting, counselor of Science and Technology of Chinese Embassy in Israel at the inauguration ceremony.

"More companies are expected to be involved in the innovation cooperation with the help of the center and more cooperation results would be achieved in the coming future, " added Cui.

Fruitful cooperation between China and Israel in the innovation sector has been gained especially since the China-Israel innovative comprehensive partnership was set up during Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's visit to China in 2017.

Thanks to the high attention and active promotion from the governments of both China and Israel, the innovation cooperation between the two sides has entered a full and flourishing era. More efforts would be made to push forward the close communication and active cooperation in the future, said Cui.

The center, established via the China-Changzhou Israel Innovation Park located in east China's Jiangsu Province, a bi-national governmental initiative, is jointly operated by the Park and professional experts and personnel from Israel. It aims to promote the development of more China-Israel innovation cooperation projects and attract capital, technology and talents.

China has become Israel's second biggest trade partner and in order to diversify the trade between the two sides, Israel would have to look for more potential partners in China and promote more Israeli small and medium-sized companies to go to the Chinese market, said Amir Lati, director of the Northeast Asia Department of Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, at the ceremony.

According to Lati, the China-Israel Joint Committee on Innovation Cooperation (JCIC) is playing a key role in promoting the innovation cooperation between the two sides. "The importance of this committee is that it allows us on an annual basis to have government to government discussions with the Chinese government under the highest position from both sides."

Jiangsu is the first Chinese province that Israel established the innovation cooperation agreement, which was a model followed with nine other provinces and government ministries of China and it was very successful, said Lati, adding that the newly-established Israel Jiangsu Center would serve as another bridge for Israeli companies to go to China.

Currently China is the second trade partner of Israel and it is very important. But there is still a huge gap between China and Israel in many aspects and efforts from both sides should be made to fill the gap, said Matan Vilnai, president of the Israel-Asia Chamber of Commerce, who served as former Israeli ambassador to China.

Companies from both sides should further strengthen their cooperation and conduct cooperation in different fields as many as possible, said Vilnai.

Vilnai believed that the Israel Jiangsu Center would play a very important and active role in pushing forward the innovation cooperation between China and Israel with the endless efforts form both sides.

Innovation cooperation between China and Israel has a broad and rosy prospect and for this, governments from both China and Israel have made great efforts to establish a very good platform, which has created excellent environment for the innovation cooperation between the two countries, said Cui in an interview with Xinhua.

China and Israel has set up the innovative comprehensive partnership and the two sides could conduct practical cooperation in each field, such as medical and healthcare, information industry, artificial intelligence, bid data, smart transportation and environmental protection, etc, Cui told Xinhua.

Vilnai also told Xinhua that the establishment of the Israel Jiangsu Center is part of building the relations between China and Israel, and it is very important, adding that "we can do a lot and work together in many aspects. China has a huge market and Israel is in many aspects a hub of innovation, globally."

Ilan Maimon works as CEO of the Israel Jiangsu Center. Maimon, who has lived in China for 18 years, hoped that this center would become home in Israel firstly to Chinese delegations and Chinese companies showing interest in Israel, and secondly introduce China into Israeli companies that want to operate in China.

China is an endless market and has the ability to help a small factory to find a big market, said Maimon in an interview with Xinhua.

"I really hope that in 5-10 years we will look back and we will see tens of companies cooperate on both sides, Chinese invest in Israel and Israeli companies move technology and factories to China," added Maimon.