MIDC Trade Mission to Israel: November 5-11, 2005  The MIDC is taking its 2005 Trade Mission to Israel, from November 5th to 11th. It will correspond with the Prime Ministerís Conference on Exports and International Cooperation. Join us to explore new market and technology opportunities with Israeli businesses and hear Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Nobel Laureate and Vice Prime Minister Shimon Peres, and Israelís corporate leaders discuss the current economic and political events in Israel and future prospects for investment and high technology. The MIDC will research and arrange private business meetings for you with Israeli prospects and potential R&D, marketing and distribution partners qualified according to your criteria.
For more information about joining the trade mission, please contact Barry Bogage at 410-767-0681 or bbogage@MarylandIsrael.org. Call for Proposals for Maryland/Israel Development Fund  The MIDC continues to accept proposals for the Maryland/Israel Development Fund (MIDF), a new program to support the creation of marketable high tech products developed jointly by Maryland/Israel company teams. The MIDF provides both funding and risk sharing with the company teams.
The program is valuable for companies seeking to leverage their technical and marketing talents by partnering with a complementary business. It will also help companies expand into international markets. The $5,000,000 five year fund will make investments of up to $300,000 in Maryland/Israel company teams collaborating on new product development joint ventures. The funds can only be used for the R&D expenses of the project. Company matching funds are required, equal to a minimum of fifty percent of total project costs. For products successful in the market, investments will be repaid with interest. The deadline for submitting proposals is October 31, 2005. Proposals will be evaluated and selected jointly by a bi-national committee. Award decisions are expected in January 2006. The MIDC will help interested companies identify appropriate R&D partners in Maryland and Israel. For more information and to download the Request for R&D Partner and Application forms, please click here, or contact us directly at info@marylandisrael.org or 410-767-0695. Israeli Police AttachÈ to Keynote at MidAtlantic All Hazards Forum
 Israeli Police AttachÈ to the United States, Brigadier General Simon Perry (ret.), will deliver the keynote address at the 2005 MidAtlantic All Hazards Forum, scheduled for October 25-28, 2005 at the Baltimore Convention Center. Gen. Perry will discuss Israel's experience in dealing with terrorism and give key insight into terror prevention and response techniques that Israel uses.
The MidAtlantic All Hazards Forum is a Maryland initiated, public-private partnership of MidAtlantic States and private corporations. The Forum focuses on identifying new technologies that address all three phases of a hazard (readiness, response, and recovery). Participating states include Delaware, the District of Columbia, Maryland, New Jersey, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia.
Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich, Jr. initiated the Maryland/Israel partnership in homeland security during his 2003 trade mission to Israel. The partnership promotes professional exchanges between homeland security officials and technology transfer and economic development between security related technology companies.
The Forum presents an excellent opportunity for Israeli companies to exhibit their homeland security technologies and products to a large audience of public and private security and law enforcement decision makers. Additionally, participating Israeli companies are entitled to a 20% discount on exhibition space. For more information, please contact the Barry Bogage at 410-767-0695 and bbogage@MarylandIsrael.org, or Tom Moran at 410-707-3698 and tom.moran@csnsolution.com. Economic Update: Israeli Economy Continues to Strengthen  New macro-economic data for the first half of 2005 shows the continued expansion of economic activity in Israel.† GDP grew at a 4.9% annual rate, easily outpacing the 3.4% average rate over the past decade. The rapid growth thus far in 2005 stems from sizable upturns in the import/export of goods as well as an increase in private consumption. In light of this encouraging data, most pundits have raised expectations for continued economic growth through 2006.
Another encouraging development is the 0.1% decline in the unemployment rate to 9 percent, with labor-force participation rising from 54.8 to 55.3 percent. The number of full time wage earners rose by 3 percent, further attesting to the recovery of the job market, and the economy in general. MIDC Collaborative Reliability Research Center
Contributed by: Joseph B. Bernstein, Director I would like to thank the Maryland/Israel Development Center for sponsoring my year as a Fulbright Senior Lecturer/Researcher in Israel. The past year helped raise the visibility of reliability studies as a necessary complement to engineering education. My year wraps up with a serious proposal to the Magnet program, through The Office of the Chief Scientist of Israel to continue an industry/academic collaboration in the area of reliability and failure analysis. The unique niche Israeli companies have in high-reliability commercial electronics in the areas of telecommunication, military and medical electronic systems provides jobs to a very large sector of the economy. Collaboration between companies is very important in an area such as reliability, where failures are quite rare. Collective data from many companies aids in the understanding of such failures. Our collaboration will continue with the University of Maryland and represents the worldís first center where both suppliers and users of the most sophisticated high-tech components work together toward reliability qualification. We expect to produce reliability guidelines that can become the new standard for robust design of commercial electronics, allowing Israeli electronics to increase their marketing edge and salability abroad. Ashkelon Unveils New Water-Desalination Plant  OTID, an international consortium of environmental technology companies, has initiated preliminary operations of Israelís first state-of-the-art water desalination facility which, when fully operational, will be the largest of its kind in the world. The plant, which is located in Ashkelon (Baltimoreís ìsister-cityî), will provide Israel with 100 million cubic meters of water a year -- approximately 5-6 percent of the national requirements.
The introduction of the Ashkelon facility marks the first milestone in a national Desalination Master Plan designed to address Israelís chronic water resource problems. The facility will make use of some unique applications, such as energy recovery, which will keep power consumption costs down to around 52.7 cents per cubic meter of water -- the lowest in the world. 
Follow the links under each listing to find out more
or to register for an event.
IN ISRAEL: November 1-3, 2005
PrintEX ñ International Exhibition for Printing Technologies
http://www.stier.co.il/english/fair_printex.htm November 1-3, 2005
FIS Technologies
http://www.stier.co.il/SG_ENG/Fis/main_fis.htm November, 2005
The 4th International Meeting on Intensive Cardiac Care
http://www.cardiac-care2005.com/ November 9, 2005
Israel Gateway Exhibition and Business Seminars
www.israelgateway.com November 10, 2005
The Prime Ministerís Conference for Export and International Cooperation
http://www.export.gov.il/Eng/_Articles/Articles.asp?CategoryID=725 December, 2005
Environment 2005 ñ Exhibition for Environmental Technologies
http://www.environment-israel.com/home.html February 21-23, 2006
LabTech 2006 ñ The First International Exhibition for Laboratory Equipment and Biotechnology
http://www.stier.co.il/images/Lab-Tech/Lab%20Tech%20updated%2030.6.05.pdf February 21-23, 2006
Medax 2005 ñ The Exhibition for Medical Technologies and Hospital Supplies
http://www.stier.co.il/SG_ENG/Medax/main_med.htm May 9-11, 2006
Agritech Israel ñ International Agricultural Meeting and Exhibition
www.kenes.com
IN THE MARYLAND REGION: September 27-28. 2005
2005 Eisenhower National Security Conference
Washington Convention Center
Washington D.C.
http://www.eisenhowerseries.com October 3-5, 2005
AUSAís Annual Meeting and Exposition
Washington Convention Center
Washington D.C.
https://www.ausa.org/www/ia.nsf October 16-21, 2005
Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics Annual Meeting Washington Convention Center
Washington D.C.
http://tct2005.com/ October 25-28, 2005
Mid-Atlantic All Hazards Forum Conference and Exhibition
Baltimore Convention Center
Baltimore, MD
http://www.allhazardsforum.com/ October 26-27, 2005
2005 Mid-Atlantic Bio
Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center
Washington D.C
www.midatlanticbio.org October 30 ñ November 2, 2005
WEFTEC 2005 ñ Water Quality Event
Washington Convention Center
Washington D.C.
http://www.weftec.org/ November 13-16, 2005
Neuroscience 2005
Washington Convention Center
Washington D.C.
http://web.sfn.org/am2005/ November 30 ñ December 1, 2005
Government Video and Technology Expo 2005
Washington Convention Center
Washington D.C.
http://www.gvexpo.com/ December 7, 2005
National Guard Association of the U.S. 9th Annual Industry Day
National Guard Memorial Building
Washington D.C.
http://www.ngaus.org/industry/industryday05.asp
For more information on any of these events,
please contact the Maryland/Israel Development Center.
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