Creating Employment Opportunities
Improving the socio-economic status of citizens living in the periphery is dependent on improving the education system and creating employment opportunities. IVN’s interest in this new venture stems from what the leadership has seen in the education field: that academic achievement is weakest in areas of poverty and unemployment. StartUp Jerusalem is IVN’s first investment in this field.

StartUp Jerusalem

Jerusalem, the cradle of three religions, has long been the spiritual and religious center of Israel. However, it is less known that Jerusalem is also home to the country’s top academic and cultural institutions, possesses some of the richest and most diverse human capital in the world, and has a world-class health and life sciences infrastructure. Despite its advantages, Jerusalem, Israel's largest city, is also its poorest – with many of the young and educated leaving the city.

Only a well-coordinated and methodological effort can help stem the tide.

To that end, IVN has partnered with a new non-profit called StartUp Jerusalem. StartUp Jerusalem aims at the revitalization of Jerusalem by stimulating economic development and job creation in those areas where Jerusalem has a competitive business advantage: (1) Health & Life Sciences; (2) Outsourcing & Business Services; (3) Culture & Tourism.

Once proven, IVN is interested to scale the SUJ methodology to other areas of Israel.

SUJ has begun to promote concrete projects, in each of the clusters:

• Health and Life Sciences: (1) Lobbying for concrete incentives for the industry in Jerusalem; (2) Promoting the establishment of a Pre-Clinical Research Facility (3) Continued promotion of Stem Cell cooperation between Israel and the State of California; (4) Mapping of Jerusalem's Life Sciences Industry and publication of recommendations to retain and attract business

• Culture and Tourism: (1) Creating Culture and Tourism packages tailored to various markets (2) Building Interactive Web-Site for incoming tourists.

• Outsourcing and Business Services: (1) Commissioning and marketing an independent international consultancy report on Jerusalem's advantages; (2)Creating a Jerusalem Outsourcing WebSite - www.outsourcetojerusalem.org ; (3) Generating concrete leads for local and international companies to move operations to Jerusalem; (4) Passing government decision for special incentives for international call centers in Jerusalem.

StartUp Jerusalem Leadership: Harvard Professor Michael E. Porter - Honorary Chairman; IVN Member Nir Barkat - Founder and Vice-Chairman; Gideon Ben-Zvi - Chairman

Website: www.startupjerusalem.org
 

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