MASHAV News

Bundestag Economic Committee meets with MASHAV team

The visiting Economic Cooperation Affairs Committee of the German Parliament met at the Foreign Ministry with MASHAV personnel and members of the European Affairs Division. They discussed continued financing for joint research plans (GIARA) and choosing suitable areas for cooperation, as well as problems encountered by German experts in the areas of the Palestinian Authority connected with bureaucratic aspects. It was decided that MASHAV will aid the representative of the German Embassy in Israel in continuing cooperation. The German side will prepare a working paper on financing the research program.

MASHAV visits the Investment Centre in Azerbaijan

After a cooperation agreement was signed between Israel, Azerbaijan and the UNDP, an Investment Centre was established at Baku in Azerbaijan. The Director of the Business Centre at the Israeli Ministry of Trade and Industry, Mr. Noah Shani, and Mrs. Orah Kirsch, representative of the Ben-Shahar company, briefly visited Baku to promote the progress of the Centre. The visit, planned by the UNIDO representative at Baku, included meeting the Mayor of Sumgait, near Baku, where the Municipal Director of International Relations will coordinate the establishment of an Investment Centre.

Project for water and land enrichment in Thailand

A seminar marking the conclusion of the project for the enrichment of water and land in northern Thailand was held with the participation of the Mekong River Secretariat delegation including a MASHAV expert. Government and regional delegates attended the seminar which concentrated on locating problems in administering water resources, exploiting drinking water sources and the profitability of raising rice and converting to intensive farming.

Brief Mission to Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia

Professor Rahmilevitch, Director of the Haematology Department at the Hadassah Medical Centre at Ein Karem, Jerusalem, on a MASHAV mission, was the guest of the Viet-Duc and Bac-Mai Hospitals in Hanoi, Vietnam. There he discussed hematological and blood-disease questions and lectured before professors, doctors and department heads. He discussed the possibility of aiding Vietnam by supplying know-how and technology in the fields of haematology and blood diseases. In Bangkok, Thailand, he lectured before 100 doctors and research scientists. Prof. Rahmilevitch was also invited to Indonesia where he addressed 150 doctors and medical students in Jakarta.

MASHAV Director meets with Mauritanian Prime Minister during Food and Agriculture Organization's Conference

The MASHAV Director and Israel's envoy to the FAO met with the Mauritanian Prime Minister and his delegation, including the Minister of Agriculture. The Prime Minister stressed their support for the Middle East peace process and normalization in the region. He heard about MASHAV's activities involving his country (with three trainees so far studying in Israel and two MASHAV experts dispatched to Mauritania). Widening this cooperation was discussed, especially in the fields of water resources, protecting plant life, and improving sheep and goat herds.

FAO Summit Conference at the UN Food and Agriculture Organization's World Conference

There was an impressive attendance of 190 delegations and more than 100 heads of state and of government. The central theme was how to ensure food for growing populations around the world, when the spreading of deserts at the expense of fertile land, the shortage of water, and the larger populations are generating threats, while the global "hothouse effect" is making the goal harder to achieve. The Israeli delegation, headed by the Minister of Agriculture, included the Director of MASHAV, the Director of Research and Development, the Israeli envoy to the FAO and the Foreign Relations Department Director in the Ministry of Agriculture. During the Conference, there were also bilateral meetings with the Agriculture Ministers of China, Turkey, Vietnam, Kazakhstan and Albania, and the President of Rwanda. The MASHAV Director and the Research and Development Director met, among other personalities, the Prime Minister of Mauritania, and the Agriculture Ministers of India, Laos and Nigeria. Existing cooperation programs were discussed as well as methods of widening them.

Swedish International Cooperation Minister visits Israel

Swedish Minister for International Cooperation Per Shuri met in Israel with the Foreign Minister, the Ministry's Director General and the Deputy Directors Generals. At the meeting with the MASHAV Director, other officials and representatives of the International Institute of the Histadrut, MASHAV officials said Israel is encouraged by the number of Palestinian trainees in MASHAV courses (120 this year) and regards cooperation with Egypt (600 trainees annually) as a model to be attained with the Palestinian Authority. MASHAV activities were reviewed with the emphasis on work with the Palestinian Authority, Egypt and Morocco. The Swedish Minister stressed the importance of cooperation and development as the basis for a solid peace, and proposed the idea of developing joint projects and cooperation through the method of twinning cities, with that cooperation being the basis for ties between the cities of the two countries.

Agricultural Cooperation with Morocco

The agricultural cooperation between Israel and Morocco and the United States (San Diego) is proceeding at the Azemour Farm, where date palms have begun to be grown in vitro, immunized against the local disease which affects these trees. The farm was visited by Professor Dov Pasternak of the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, on behalf of MASHAV. It has been decided that three Moroccan researchers should visit Israel to study desert development; two will also take part in a regional seminar for development to be held in February 1997. It has also been decided to work out a cooperation program between the Moroccan Afforestation Research Institute and Ben-Gurion University on afforestation in the Sahara region.

Four-way Cooperation: Israel, Luxembourg, Morocco and the Palestinian Authority

Working sessions have been held with the project director from Luxembourg, and the four-way plan is focussing on setting up hothouses in the Gaza District and in Morocco. The company which will build them, Lux Consult, will arrange a professional visit to Morocco for those involved.

Intensive Care Department opened in Asmara

An intensive care department was opened at the Central Hospital in Asmara, in a moving ceremony attended by the local Ministry of Health, the WHO representative and the training teams from Israel and Eritrea. The Eritrean Health Ministry representatives expressed their wish to expand this important activity in other hospitals around the country.

OAS envoy from Washington meets with MASHAV in Israel

The special envoy of the Organization of American States in Washington DC on a visit to Israel met with the MASHAV Director and expressed satisfaction at the scope of MASHAV activities including the number of trainees in Israel (900 a year) from Latin America. He promised to increase the travel stipends for them.

Israeli Doctors open eye clinic in Burkina Faso

On November 18, 1996, within the framework of the Foreign Ministry's Centre for International Cooperation, a temporary camp to treat eye diseases was established in Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso. Representatives of the President of Burkina Faso, the Foreign and Health Ministries, and Israeli (non-resident) Ambassador Jacques Revah attended the official opening of the facility.

Doctors Mordechai Gadleon and Michael Gilboa, eye doctors from Rambam Hospital in Haifa, travelled to Ouagadougou in order to carry out operations on patients threatened by blindness. In the wake of earlier announcements regarding the project, many needy patients came to the camp from around the country in order to be checked and to receive treatment on the spot. The doctors expect to be able to treat 300 patients in the 10 days during which the camp will be in operation. The doctors brought 700 kg. of medical equipment and supplies with them.