A Global Leader in Innovation and Technology

DowDuPont, conglomerate of two major U.S. corporations formed in 2017, expanded operations in Israel in the same year.

"Israel is one of the economies with the swiftest growth in the world and many of Israel's companies are leaders in technologies and services that will help companies and communities to prosper worldwide," said Dow Chemical Co. EVP and president of Dow Europe, Middle East, Africa & India, Heinz Haller at a ceremony in Tel Aviv in October 2017.

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Intel has completed the first stage of the $15.3 billion purchase of Mobileye, an Israeli technology company that specializes in producing sensors and cameras for autonomous cars, as of August 2017.

The acquisition is expected to accelerate innovation for the automotive industry and positions the global microchip giant as a leading technology provider in the fast-growing market for highly and fully autonomous vehicles.

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BlackRock, Inc., an American global investment management corporation based in New York City which oversees $5.4 trillion in assets, opened its first office in Israel in 2017, tapping into the country’s engineers and programmers to help improve the firm’s global platform in a changing assetmanagement industry.

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Israeli high-tech companies closed 104 deals in 2016 worth $10 billion, up 12% from 2015, according to the IVC - Meitar High-Tech Exits Report.

The figure includes 93 mergers and acquisitions worth nearly $8.8 billion, including the $4.4 billion Playtika acquisition, eight buyouts that generated $1.22 billion and three small IPOs totaling $15.1 million.

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Pioneering the Environmental Revolution

By 1967 around one in twenty households in Israel heated its water with the sun and 50,000 solar heaters had been sold. Following the 1970s oil crisis, Harry Zvi Tabor, the father of Israel’s solar industry, developed the prototype of the solar water heater now used in over 90% of Israeli homes.

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The Jerusalem Ring is a metropolitan park that extends over some 1,500 hectares (3700 acres), surrounding Israel's capital to the north, west, and south.

Closed to traffic and entirely accessible to the disabled, the project still in development includes a host of environmentally-friendly cycling routes, hiking trails, picnic areas and coffee shops.

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A Growing Nation of Continued Well-Being and Prosperity

In 2017, Israel ranked ahead of United States, Britain, France and Italy in the annual World Happiness Report, a survey of global societal well-being that ranks 155 countries by happiness levels using variables such as GDP per capita and healthy life expectancy.

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Israel leads the world in the number of researchers per capita, it is second in research and development and the third in high-tech density.

Overall, the ‘start-up nation’ ranks at #10 globally as 2017’s most innovative nation in the world, according to Bloomberg Innovation Index, moving up one notch from 2016.

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With a growth rate standing at 1.8 percent, the highest in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, Israel’s population topped 8.7 million on Erev Rosh Hashanah 5777.

Israel’s birth rate was 3.11% on the year, with 181,405 babies being born, and the country saw 27,000 people move to Israel over the last year of whom 25,000 were new immigrants.

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In a statement issued August 4, 2017, credit rating firm Standard & Poor’s raised the outlook on Israel’s debt profile to "positive" from "stable," and held Israel's debt rating stable at A+, which means it could raise the grade a notch in the next two years.

"The rating action reflects our opinion that Israel's improved fiscal framework and strong economic growth could enable further progress on fiscal consolidation over the next few years," the agency remarked.

The Bonds organization takes pride in the role it has played in strengthening Israel’s economy and thanks every Israel bond investor for helping to make this achievement possible (Israel Bonds are not rated).