Slovak Investment and Trade Development Agency (SARIO) organised a business mission to Israel on the occasion of Cybertech conference 2020, which was held from 28th until 30th January 2020.The business mission, which was attended by 9 Slovak SMEs, was concentrated on the ICT sector, with a special focus on cybersecurity. Mission´s primary objective was to provide complex insight into the business environment in Israel, as well as to explore cooperation opportunities and to achieve new business contacts.During their stay, Slovak enterprises did not just attend one of the biggest conferences focused on new technologies and solutions in cybersecurity, but also visited a start-up centre in Jerusalem and technological park Gav-Yam Negev Advanced Technologies Park in Be'er Sheva. Thanks to the agenda diversity Slovak business representatives had an opportunity to establish new contacts with technological experts and to explore Israeli market, which is specific by its close cooperation with academic and R&D area. Having had the opportunity to hold meetings with a high number of Israeli entrepreneurs the Slovak companies have acquainted themselves with the current business environment in the sector of cybersecurity. The close cooperation of the government, academic community and business environment in Israel was demonstrated during the visit of the Be'er Sheva technological park, where more than 70 companies reside, what represents over 2500 engineers and researchers. Moreover, the Israeli government established here a National Cyber Bureau, working under the direct supervision of the Israeli Prime Minister´s Office. Located in the premises is also the Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT), which provides free non-stop 119 hotline, where Israeli citizens can report suspicious activities from their computers. This type of hotline is the first one in the world.During the business mission, the Slovak SMEs had also an opportunity to meet with the Ambassador of Slovak Republic in Tel Aviv, Mr. Igor Maukš, with the Economic diplomat, Mr. Matej Kereš, as well as with the Innovative diplomat, Mr. Miloš Bikár. Following these meetings, the Slovak participants achieved even more information about the ongoing Slovak-Israeli business cooperation and about their opportunities to penetrate the Israeli market.In the framework of this business mission, Slovakia showed a significant interest to establish cooperation with Israel, where the importance of the cybersecurity sector has been highly increasing in the last decade. Slovak SMEs have also showed competitiveness by presenting their innovative ideas in the ICT and cybersecurity area.Slovak Investment and Trade Development Agency (SARIO) organizes trade missions within its National Project ‘Support of internationalization of SMEs’ which is organized within the framework of the Operational Programme "Integrated infrastructure".SARIO seeks to organize many trade missions, which can be seen on the events websites.Additional information is available at: https://www.sario.sk/sk/np
