Mind the Tech London 2024"Israel is in a Category 5 hurricane, but it is heading for a decade of prosperity"
Mind the Tech London 2024
"Israel is in a Category 5 hurricane, but it is heading for a decade of prosperity"
Bezeq Executive Chairman Tomer Raved, speaking at Calcalist and Leumi’s Mind the Tech London conference, added regarding the decisions to lower Israel's credit rating: "The rating agencies are wrong and short-sighted, the pillars of the Israeli economy are very strong."
Tomer Raved
(Photo: Alex Kolomoyski)
"Israel is in a Category 5 hurricane, but it is heading for a decade of prosperity," said Bezeq Executive Chairman Tomer Raved at Calcalist and Bank Leumi's Mind The Tech London conference.
Raved opened his remarks with a personal story. "On October 6, I was in New York and presented Israel's resilience and its strong economic foundations to a group of CEOs from the USA. The next morning on October 7th, I woke up on the plane at 9:00 am before landing, and began to understand the chaos that had just begun when I saw an Iron Dome intercept a rocket outside the window. It was the last plane to land before the airport was closed for several hours."
According to Raved, "some people discussed the possibility of a complete closure. That is, they feared a collapse of the electricity and the Internet. Now, the words I said in the U.S. were tested in the most brutal way."
Raved noted that "the last year was a huge test for the country and our society, and thanks to the efforts of our management and employees alongside the investment we made in the last few years in the network, we were able to support a surge in the use of the network that in one day was equivalent to the surge we usually see over one to two years."
According to him, "one lesson from this experience is that while our economic base and infrastructure are stable and sound, we must continue to invest to bring them to the next level."
Raved noted that since October 7 "we continue to hear the expression "from the river to the sea". According to him, while most people do not know which river and which sea it is, "we are focused on making sure that the flow, innovation and data sea and infrastructure of Israel will continue to prosper."
Raved referred to the Israeli high-tech industry and said that "high-tech serves as an important engine and even in these difficult days continues to attract investors and thrives with innovation and motivated entrepreneurs who support Israel's growth."
According to him, "we must never forget that the foundation of this country, its culture, mentality and uniqueness is built on the strength of its human capital, infrastructure and geographical location."
Raved noted that Bezeq, being the largest telecom company in Israel, invested more than two billion dollars in deploying digital infrastructure, mainly optical fibers, throughout the country: "This is an investment with a long-term vision that can support Israel and the region in the next decade or two."
Raved said that "Israel is today at one of the most important turning points in its history. Maybe towards a new world order in the region, but everything in the Middle East creates unique opportunities in trade, transportation, digital infrastructure and of course high-tech."
According to him, "in the last decade, we have seen a new era of first-class international investors investing in a variety of industries in Israel and not only in high-tech. These funds understand Israel's unique situation as a developed country with a rapid growth in GDP per capita that is faster than most OECD countries, with an unrivaled security and technology ecosystem, and with a robust economy that has survived the last two decades better than any economy in the world."
According to Raved, the funds that choose to invest in Israel "can see through the noise, they were evidence that Israel survived the challenging black swans of the last two decades better than most countries."
"Israel is now in a perfect storm, a shocking level 5 hurricane that will have to end and we must not neglect the need to focus on our investment horizon," Raved said. "As the most innovative country in the world, and the most logical country to serve as a bridge between the East and the West, Israel's future is bright."
In his words, Raved referred to the decisions to downgrade Israel's credit rating and said that "the credit agencies are wrong and in a sense short-sighted because Israel's macro fundamentals are very strong. While volatility cannot be ignored in the short term, the long term is promising."
According to him, "international investors and the community here in the room are the key to this horizon and many global players understand the unique opportunity to return to Israel to invest now. This is just the beginning."
He concluded by saying, "supporting our nation's human capital and infrastructure will ensure a prosperous decade with attractive GDP growth and growth companies in the high-tech sector and beyond."
Watch his full remarks in the video above.
