Nazareth industrial park show’s hi-tech potential

President Peres one of keynote speakers at dedication ceremony for the Nazareth Industrial Park.

By GREER FAY CASHMAN
President Shimon Peres 370 (photo credit: Mark Neiman/GPO)
President Shimon Peres 370
(photo credit: Mark Neiman/GPO)
President Shimon Peres will be one of the keynote speakers at the dedication ceremony for the Nazareth Industrial Park on Tuesday.
For several years now, Peres has been a staunch and consistent advocate for the integration of haredim and Arabs into Israel’s hitech industries. Early in his presidency, he brought a busload of leading Israeli industrialists, entrepreneurs and investors to Nazareth, which is home to Israel’s largest Arab community, with the aim of promoting joint ventures with existing Arab-owned companies and providing seed money for start-ups in the Arab sector.
Less than a year later, in February 2011, together with the heads of about 20 mostly multi-national companies, Peres inaugurated Maantech, a voluntary coalition of hi-tech companies that are interested in recruiting and training hi-tech professionals from the Arab sector and whose members have also gone into high schools to award training scholarships to students with hi-tech potential.
In addition, some of the business executives who were on that bus ride with Peres have formed important business relationships with Arab companies.
But the person with the most far-reaching vision is Israeli business magnate Stef Wertheimer. After scoring impressive successes with six industrial parks, Wertheimer decided to build a seventh in Nazareth.
The park provides opportunities – in both theory and practice – in that it offers technical education to young people who have demonstrated an aptitude for hi-tech. It will provide jobs in local hi-tech enterprises for those who are already qualified and in some cases, people will be able to learn on the job.
Other speakers at the event will be outgoing Bank of Israel Governor Stanley Fischer, Nazareth Mayor Ramez Jeraisy and Wertheimer.
The first major company to take up residence in the industrial park is Amdocs, a global leader in unified communications and network services and solutions.