2021 will be remembered not only as another year in a new COVID-19 driven reality but also as a year marked by several important dates shared by Israel and Ukraine that we at the Israeli-Ukrainian Alliance have no right to ignore

According to Anna Zharova, CEO of the Israeli-Ukrainian Alliance, study tours – despite online solutions available on the market – are a surprisingly effective tool for immersing oneself in the Israeli ecosystem

Modern restaurant of Israeli and Middle Eastern cuisine opened its door on Saturday, December 18, in the historic Podil district of the capital

Articles in the media and speeches of politicians are full of theses about Ukrainian talents and number of graduates specializing in IT. But does Ukraine respect its human capital? Does it invest in its people, their ambitions, skills and experience? Perhaps. But it can do even better.

Global companies have already appreciated this opportunity, but for Israeli business there are even more advantages. An additional advantage is the Agreement on a free trade zone, which separately stipulates the development of relations in the IT sector. Together, these factors create favorable conditions for the start of cooperation.

The US film business does not necessarily require collaboration. While film industries of such relatively ‘small’ states like Israel and Ukraine is ‘doomed’ to co-production. IUA's Anna Zharova shares her insights about cooperation between the both states.

Introducing “second opinion” services will not solve all of Ukraine’s medical issues at once, but it is certainly a practice that should be adopted and promoted.

What Ukrainian industries benefit from Israeli investors? Olha Stoliarchuk's column for 'Delo.ua' media outlet

Alliance’s CEO Anna Zharova joined the Forum as a speaker for the panel “International education as a key vector of Ukraine's expansion in the world” by the Global Ukraine Foundation

You’ve gathered terabytes of data, and now all you have to do is hire experts to make use of it, right? Well, it’s not all that simple.

The official presentation of the Alliance's new program took place on April 13 during an online conference

In its new role within the Export Promotion Office the Alliance will assist Ukrainian business in entering Israeli market

the Office of Export Promotion offers free sourcing services for international businesses wishing to cooperate or coproduce with Ukrainian producers of components, goods, and services

On February 23, "GO ISRAEL: Free Trade Area of Ukraine with Israel: new opportunities and prospects for business" webinar will be held for Ukrainian exporters and manufacturers to demonstrate benefits of Free Trade Agreement with Israel.

Israel’s Economic and Trade Mission to Ukraine and Israeli-Ukrainian Alliance held an online meeting between the representatives of Ukrainian clinics and their Israeli counterparts

In July 2020, Ukraine introduced quotas for foreign IT professionals that allowed local companies hire them using a simplified procedure.

Israeli-Ukrainian Alliance (IUA) took part in the “Business Opportunities in Digital Development and AG-Tech” online event by the EBRD

On December 7-11, representatives of Israeli-Ukrainian Alliance and a panel of invited experts will run a series of lectures on Israel for the students of Ukrainian Leadership Academy

Gennady Nadolenko, ambassador of Ukraine to Israel of 10 years, was officially appointed to his new post on November 25 by the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Dmytro Kuleba

On December 2, online platform Merezha, Israeli-Ukrainian Alliance’s partners, will hold an experimental conference.

The free trade zone between Ukraine and Israel shall enter into force on 1st January 2021

On November 10, Israeli-Ukrainian Alliance held an online meetup “Addressing COVID Challenges and Opportunities with Outsourcing Solutions”

Israeli-Ukrainian Alliance is happy to announce it have been invited to present during the “Global Outreach” session of the HealthIL’s virtual main event this year

Many people worldwide dream about visiting the holy city of Jerusalem, seeing the holy sites of the three global religions, and placing a note among the stones of the Western Wall. However, doing this in person is currently impossible due to quarantine restrictions

Online meetup for Israeli health tech businesses

The EU4Digital Facility held the second ICT Innovation networking event on 8 October

From 25th of January till 7th of February 2021 International Institute of Education, Culture and Diaspora Relations conducted an intensive Ukrainian as a foreign language

Dr. Ihor Kuzin, Acting Director General of Public Health Center of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine, summarized the changes that should be implemented in the government system to secure a more effective response to crises, similar to the COVID-19 pandemic

Dr. Evgeniy Kazman, Infectious Diseases Unit, Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center, warned that the “new norms” are rules for everyone and nobody is safe from risks of a “sad scenario”: “We still do not know much of COVID-19. There was a case of 22-year old basketball player that has been much talked of in Israel. He was healthy as an ox, but caught a very severe form of COVID. He literally died two times. The boy was lucky to recover. Today on TV he persuades people to wear masks. The paradox is that that three of his friends got over the disease very easily. Reasons, why that basketball player fall ill with the extreme stage of the virus are still unclear. As a medical practitioner, I may say that every case of COVID severe form is a real challenge for doctors and every recovery is like a miracle”.

Anna Pellivert, VP Business Development of Yissum, Hebrew University Jerusalem, leading Technology Transfer company, answered the question “How can academics contribute to fighting the pandemic?”: “Yissum is a platform, which enables the migration of scientific ideas from the university into an industry, and then into society. Our scientists have already had their own achievements in the field of virology, in particular on swine flu and Ebola. Today they adapt their researches to peculiarities of the new virus. We have received a few government grants. As a result, the Hebrew University has filled 24 patent applications for new solutions that will help society in a few years”.

Dr Sergiy Zhitansky, technical director at Transfotech and founder of the platform NewCare, who works in Predictive Medicine for HealthCare: “We have created a group of products, which helps to determine on early stages such diseases as cancer, viruses, tuberculosis and diagnose lunges and other organs. Moreover, our technology allows to predict the approach of serious health conditions (stroke, heart attack) according to changes in human behavior. Our solutions function together with the ability to timely respond to people fall, the sound of cough, owing to which we determine with a probability of 90% a viral disease. A complement to our product is the ability to identify people with fever, even in crowds, as well as responding to cases of violence and fire”.

Vitaly Trakhtenberg, Sales Director at RayZone Group LTD, company which creates cyber intelligence solutions for governmental and federal agencies, responded on one of Igor Kuzin`s request: “Imagine that a COVID-19 positive person queued in a supermarket. Owing to our system, we could determine people, who stood near that person, using only his or her phone number”. One of the questions adressed to Mr Trakhtenberg was about privacy violation and the use of personal data: “GDPR – four letters, that we have learned very well recently. Article 9, point (i) of the General Data Protection Regulation states that a ban on personal data processing is not accepted when "processing is necessary for reasons of public interest in the area of public health, such as protecting against serious cross-border threats to health. Our system is already working in some EU countries and in North America”.

Dr. Pavel Goldstein, PhD Assistant Professor, Head of Chronic Pain and Public Health Laboratory, Head of Biostatistics MPH program, School of Public Health, University of Haifa, Israel, highlighted the mental health problems during the pandemic and their ability to enhance or reduce our risks of catching COVID-19: “One in five doctors is experiencing clinical depression, four out of ten suffers from sleep disorders. However, this issue is relevant not only for medical personnel. The pandemic exerts a very serious impact on the mental health of all of us. This could cripple our immune system, being the last obstacle on the way of the virus getting inside. We realize that at some point, the danger of COVID-19 will decrease, but psychological and even psychiatric problems will remain. To help people in this challenging time, we are developing the T-life app in order to support mental health and hopefully the immune system”.

Prof. Manfred Green, Head of International MPH Program, School of Public Health, University of Haifa, reminded about dangers, COVID-19 will further represent: “Spanish flu spread all over the world in three waves, lasting from 1918 to 1920. There was an unwillingness to impose restrictions, which is largely similar to current situation. The second wave of COVID-19 in Israel was caused because of reducing quarantine measures prematurely. It is now important to impose “new rules”: physical distancing, wearing masks in public without fail, massive gatherings limitation, contact tracing and strict adherence to the principle “if sick – stay at home”.

Tali Ploskov, Chair of the Ethics Committee, Member of the Knesset for Likud, stressed that the government pays special attention to supporting small businesses: “There are a lot of private entrepreneurs in Israel. The majority found themselves in a very tough situation due to the crisis, caused by COVID. Unfortunately, in compliance with current regulations, they are not entitled to a paid sick leave, vacation or unemployment benefits. The government has to take urgent measures in order to help them, in particular, adopting relevant bills".

Maryna Saprykina, Managing Director for CSR Ukraine, shared the results of a survey concerning the reaction of Ukrainian businesses to the quarantine: “Ukrainians could be proud of the domestic businesses’ response to the crisis: 88% of respondent companies supported the fight against COVID-19 in one way or another. Among the most common measures: doctors and hospitals` support, purchase of medical equipment, provision of goods and services free-of-charge".

Eugene Nayshtetik, managing partner of the biomedical innovation company Lorton Investments, urged to think about the “side effects” that come with strict quarantine measures, taken by most governments: “Quarantine is the same medical technology as any other, and the same standards should be applied to it as to any other therapeutic intervention. In particular, it is important to consider side effects with changes in the quality of people`s life. It is not a secret that doctors all around the world keep reporting about an increase in stress-induced diseases: someone has got an ulcer, others suffer from aggravated cardiovascular problems. There is no way I appeal to the quarantine measures abolition. I just want to say that these measures should be planned with a “human touch”. When deciding on how to tackle the pandemic, authorities should treat people like people, not like an abstract population”.

Maria Mezentseva, MP of Ukraine, Deputy Head of the Committee on EU Integration, noted that as of today European integration focus has shifted to the review of export quotas for Ukraine and to the e-commerce regulations, which are likely to contribute to the economic recovery after the recession, caused by the pandemic: "Moreover, we continue to work towards visa-free expansion: avia visa-free – common airspace, food and industrial visa-free regimes – an opportunity to export not only raw materials, but also finished goods".

Hennadiy Nadolenko, Ambassador of the Embassy of Ukraine in the State of Israel, emphasized that “for us, diplomats, it is important to get back to the pre-pandemic level of relations. Today a slight drop in external trade is noticeable, but we have learned to use online means, so the work is improving".

Michael Lotem, Director, Economic department, Asia, CIS at MFA Israel welcomed IUA’s initiative and “called not to stay still, as COVID-19 changes the rules of the game very quickly”.

Lilia Zagrebelna, Sustainability Director at Nova Poshta, shared an important practice of mitigating the risks, associated with COVID-19, which could be adopted by other enterprises

July 14, 2020, on the initiative of Israeli-Ukrainian Alliance with the support of Embassy of Ukraine in Israel and Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, an online strategic session was held. The topic was: “Second Wave of COVID-19. Israel and Ukraine join forces to develop strategic and technological solutions". The discussion encompassed presentations of officials, business and medical community representatives from both countries.

SUMMIT IFS - this is a landmark international event for everyone who cares about the development of their business wants, to be informed about the global changes and trends of the furniture and interior industry, who wants to optimize production and commercial processes in response to the new challenges

The Global Ukraine Foundation was created after the EuroMaidan Revolution in Ukraine, its mission is to connect “people, places and ideas” to create positive disruptive impact for Ukrainians everywhere they live.

Hebrew University Researchers Submit Proposals to Israel Innovation Authority to Investigate Diagnostics, Treatments, and Cures for COVID-19

Dmytro Kuleba and Zeev Elkin discussed infrastructure projects, trade and investment cooperation between Ukraine and Israel

At the initiative of the Embassy of Ukraine in Israel, IUA and Quattrgroup, announce the online strategic session between Israeli and Ukrainian experts on the ways of coping with the 2nd wave of COVID-19. The session is due on July 14, 2020.