Cooperation in innovation can reshape the Middle East - opinion

• Date: 29 December 2020
• Published date: 29 December 2020
• Author: MICHAEL GRANOFF
• Publication title: Jerusalem Post, The: Web Edition Articles (Israel)

Clearly the COVID-19 pandemic and the ensuing shutdowns of national economies are the most vivid illustrations of this fact of life, but it should be noted that this year also brought more auspicious reminders.

Case in point: the normalization agreements the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain signed with Israel in September. Seemingly out of the blue, nations that adhered to the Arab League's strict boycott of the Jewish state for 75 years did more than make peace; they initiated genuinely warm relations between the nations.

While some observers have analyzed this watershed development in the context of Israel and the Gulf states' joint struggle against the mutual threat posed by Iran, it was immediately obvious to thousands of Emiratis and Israelis who instantly began interacting online that the bilateral relationship would rapidly become rich not just on a strategic level, but also in terms of friendship, tourism, and all manners of trade and commercial cooperation.

We believe that among the most significant consequences will be the flourishing of a new Middle Eastern network of innovation-driven economies. Closer commercial ties will afford Israel's regional allies greater access to one of the world's leading tech hubs, providing Israel with new local markets in which to implement its solutions. The Gulf states also boast an impressive array of cutting-edge start-ups tackling challenges and seizing opportunities that cross borders. This fusion of talent, capital and technology has the potential to foster an innovation ecosystem greater and more powerful than the sum of its parts.

Until now, Israel, acclaimed as the start-up nation in an eponymous book published a decade ago, has lacked the opportunity to harness its world-renowned prowess in such diverse fields as agritech, mobility, fintech, artificial intelligence and cybersecurity to nurture the larger region's innovation ecosystem – to the detriment of both the Jewish state and its neighbors.

As I (Thani) observed at a recent conference, "Israel is the capital of innovation and startups. We in the UAE are the scale-up capital. Together, there is no limit to what we can do together."

Indeed, within two months of the agreement, my (Michael's) venture fund, Maniv Mobility, became the first fund based in Israel to invest in a UAE-based technology start-up, the kick-scooter sharing platform, Fenix. And that, of course, is just the beginning. Hundreds of Israelis in the venture, financial, and other...