How can Nazareth become a tech ecosystem like Tel Aviv?

“We have amazing engineers that can do lots of innovation, same as everywhere - the problem maybe is that we are still disconnected from the Israeli ecosystem, but lots of steps are being made in order to be part and to join the Israeli ecosystems,” explained Reem Younis, Co-Founder at Alpha Omega. The medical device company was founded there as part of its mission because she saw high-tech was developing in Tel Aviv while being neglected in other regions in the periphery.

“It’s not that there are two ecosystems, because here at Amdocs you will see Jewish people working with Arab people. It’s not that it is disconnected,” she said. “I would say it’s not booming the same as what is happening in Tel Aviv. This is due, maybe, to lack of venture capital, of money that is in the periphery compared to the money and the VC industry that is located in the city of Tel Aviv… or the country of Tel Aviv, as we say.”

For Younis, the solution for this lies with companies like Amdocs, who choose to open up a location in periphery areas, but also with the government and their obligation to incentivize private companies to escape the bubble of Tel Aviv. “The government needs to take so many steps in order to encourage those companies who are in the center to relocate to the periphery where there is much more talent and, of course, we are talking high tech: it can be from anywhere so the periphery is not that far from Tel Aviv,” she said.

You can watch the entire exchange in the video above.