Building bridges beyond borders: JVP founder on AI, trust, and Israel-UAE cooperation
Dr. Erel Margalit tells i24news’ Innov’nation how business, AI innovation, and the Abraham Accords are shaping regional partnerships from Dubai ● WATCH
On a special show of i24NEWS' Innov'Nation show – dedicated to the Jerusalem Venture Partners conference held in Dubai, UAE. I24NEWS' correspondent, Balig Sladeen, interviewed Dr. Erel Margalit,founder of JVP and a former member of the Knesset.
"Israeli companies and international companies that are choosing the UAE as a gateway to an entire region. And today we have here 450 entrepreneurs coming from Israel, coming from the US, coming from Europe, coming together with the Emiratis customers and investors and some of the leading people from Europe as well to say that we are going after the next phase of cooperation economically between Israel, the UAE, Europe, and the US."
The location of the conference is obvious, but after all, politics plays a role also here with Abraham Accords that opened a window for new opportunities and collaborations between the countries.
Dr. Margalit mention that "politics was behind in businesses leading the way in the last few years. If it was up to politics, things would have just frozen. We decided to move on, to keep on going. We decided to build trust. Trust is something that takes time to build, especially in this region. Trust is something that you need to work on and you can't stop from one day to the next."
"You know about ChatGPT, Again, the horizontal AI, Israelis are the best in the world in vertical AIs, which mean AI that serves specific industries. And when you see the companies that are here today, each of them is focusing on another industry where it's bringing solutions in a big way. Yes, we will definitely touch on the micro vertical AI. But let's first talk about the move that you took right after Trump announced the Abraham Accords back then," Margalit added.
About the situation of the Israelis who chose to collab with the UAE, especially after 2 years of war, Margalit explained: "The last two years, especially the last year since the last summer, were probably the worst years in terms of Israel's image in the world and Israel's image in the region. We have to be honest with ourselves. What's happening now is since the ceasefire, there is gradual going back to talk about business. We're here to create trust between our people, between our two nationalities. We're here to say that we're here to stay. We're here to invest. We're here to do things together."
And what about his message to the Israelis and none-Israelis that are reaching out the JVP? Mr. Margalit said that JVP is one of the leading funds in the world with operations in Israel, Europe, UAE and the US: "So if you work with us, you have access.. and you can get access to other geographies, countries and you have the spirit of collaboration – which makes Israel so strong, the ability to go with a plan after the war and looking how things could look beyond the military operation."