Having once been a recipient of World Bank loans--most recently from 1975 to 1981--the move to become a contributing country is significant.
By NIV ELISComputer keyboard [illustrative].(photo credit: ING IMAGE/ASAP)
The Economy Ministry and World Bank have reached a first-of-its-kind agreement for Israel to provide best practices for developing countries in the Information and Communication TechnologieThe Economy Ministry will contribute to a half million dollars to fund three training courses for World Bank clients – developing country policymakers – to take place in Israel, focusing on ICT in water, agriculture and cyber-security. It will also contribute analysis for the Bank’s 2016 World Development report.“Israel is a leader in information technologies and their applications to areas like agriculture, irrigation, and cyber security,” said Pierre Guislain, Senior Director of the World Bank’s Transport and Information & Communications Technology (ICT) Global Practice. “We are very happy that Israel has chosen ICT as the topic for its partnership with the Bank.” The collaboration followed two years of discussions between the ministry’s Foreign Trade Administration and the Bank’s ICT unit, which represents roughly $1.7 billion worth of projects with active ICT components at the bank.Having once been a recipient of World Bank loans--most recently from 1975 to 1981--the move to become a contributing country is significant, Economy Minister Naftali Bennett noted.“This agreement will create a great collaborative platform that will contribute to strengthening our relations with developing countries and will create opportunities for sharing Israeli expertise and technologies,” Bennett said.
![Computer keyboard [illustrative]. (photo credit: ING IMAGE/ASAP)](https://images.jpost.com/image/upload/q_auto/c_fill,g_faces:center,h_537,w_822/264513 "Computer keyboard [illustrative].")