The Israel Chamber of Commerce in China held its first meeting in Beijing.
Businesses represented at the Nov. 6 meeting, which came came two months after Israeli President Shimon Peres marked the founding of the chamber during the Olympics, ranged from tour companies to IP firms to a local kindergarten. Agriculture and high-tech are the Chinese industries in which Israeli companies are most prominent.
Einat Tzur, the organization’s executive manager, said the chamber’s purpose not only is to bring Israelis together, but also to connect Israeli companies with Jewish-owned businesses and other nationalities.
Edouard Schmitt Zur Hohe of the intellectual property firm Schmitt Zur Hohe & Ferrante attended the event even though he is not Israeli and does not consider himself a practicing Jew.
"I have family in Israel, and my company has many Israeli clients," he said. "I don’t know why they didn’t organize this sooner."
Adi Talmor, the Israeli chief financial officer of Eggroll Tours, says that although Israeli firms in China have been making connections on their own, "it’s good for people who are interested in looking up a particular company to see who exists in China and where they are."
Tzur said the new chamber is looking to cooperate with other more established chambers of commerce in the future.
