Seoul Becomes Friendly with Tel Aviv, Israel

Israel’s economic capital of Tel Aviv, that has come to the forefront as the world’s finest startup city, will form a friendly relationship with Seoul, as well as a cooperative relationship. This is Seoul’s first friendly relationship with a city in Israel and the third with a city in the Middle East, after Tehran, Iran and Muscat, Oman.

Mayor Park Won-soon, who is currently visiting Tel Aviv, Israel, met with Mayor Ron Huldai at Tel Aviv City Hall to conclude an MOU on friendly exchanges and cooperation between Seoul and Tel Aviv.

With the Friendly City Agreement, the two cities will cooperate on improving the startup ecosystem, as well as in areas of innovative startups, culture and tourism, smart city, traffic, social innovation, shared economy, and sustainable development.

With Seoul’s current focus on innovative startups under the key strategy of changing the economic map in the future, the city’s new partnership with Tel Aviv, a global startup city that houses a concentration of 70% of Israel’s high-tech industries, will aim to fortify the construction of Seoul’s innovative startup ecosystem.

Tel Aviv is the heart of the country’s economy, located along Israel’s western Mediterranean coast. Though it was once a small port city, Tel Aviv began to see full-scale development with the migration of individuals of Jewish background to the area in 1909.

The city became one of the world’s top startup cities with its implementation of various policies for the attraction of foreign investors and businesses, and provision of optimal working environments for early startups. The city understands that Mayor Ron Huldai, who has been mayor of Tel Aviv since 1998 for five consecutive terms, has played a significant role in the city’s growth. The population of Tel Aviv, that once recorded a forty-year negative growth, has now experienced a 10% increase in growth during Mayor Ron Huldai’s terms in office.

Mayor Park Won-soon visited “FutuRx,” Israel’s biotech, innovative startup incubator, to discuss cooperative measures with the Hongneung’s “Seoul Biohub,” the base location for the fostering of Seoul’s biotech industries.