by Nick Kolyohin
JERUSALEM, Sept. 6 (Xinhua) -- The annual DLD Tel Aviv Innovation Festival, held on Sept. 5-6, gathered thousands of delegates from many world's leading companies to promote or exchange expertise in high-technology.
The companies drawn to the eye-catching gala include European aerospace company Airbus, French telecommunications giant Orange, German software corporation SAP SE and telecommunications company Deutsche Telekom, British media giant SKY, Republic of Korea's multinational conglomerate Samsung, and U.S. Google, Ford, IBM and manufacturing company Applied Materials, as well as New York-based professional services network Deloitte.
"It's exciting to see so many companies from all around the world coming every year to this special event," said Yossi Vardi, chairman of the DLD festival in Tel Aviv.
As one of Israel's first and most influential high-tech entrepreneurs, Vardi told Xinhua on Wednesday that this year's high-technology event witnessed a record global interest in participation.
Multiple panels with world's leading high-tech figures were organized during the festival to discuss the future of the technology, covering topics from high-technology for human well-being, future banking and blockchain, to autonomous and shared transport, artificial intelligence and cybersecurity.
One of the highlighted panels dealt with the Israeli-Palestinian cooperation in the high-tech zone against the backdrop of a conflict between the two peoples. Many Israelis believed a thriving Palestinian economy can bring peace to the region.
Another panel tried to explore the differences between old and new media. Some participants said good content prevails over the platform.
"Companies here in Israel are always looking for practical solutions to real problems," Don Butler, executive director of Connected Vehicle and Services at Ford Motor Co., said in an interview with Xinhua.
"We like to come to DLD Tel Aviv and Israel. There is so much concentration of talents and technical capabilities here," Butler noted.
Notably, a special interaction event was held on Wednesday by the government of Chengdu, an economic powerhouse city in western China, where the initiation of an Israeli innovation center was announced in the Chinese city.
Wu Kai, a senior official in Chengdu, said it is hoped that cooperation in the sectors of information and cyber, bio-technology, clean energy, new materials, advanced manufacturing could be strengthened between Chengdu and Israeli governments, universities and companies through the event.
Gabriel Shemer, director of the Business Development at Israel Institute of Technology (Technion), also expressed high expectations for the future technological cooperation between China and Israel.
"Technion has established a model institute of technology in China, where Israeli professors from Technion are going to teach, while the students are granted Israeli Technion's degrees," Shemer told Xinhua.
"China is one of the major markets for our startups and investors," he said.
