Discount Bank CEO: "Business cooperation between Israel and Japan is natural but we must get to know each other better"

צילום: שמוליק דודפור

"Our business cooperation is natural and necessary and we must look for what we can learn and yield from each other. But business only comes after we understand each other. We must get to know each other well - and better. We must bridge the gaps,” said Uri Levin, CEO of Discount Bank, speaking at Calcalist and Discount Bank’s Israel-Japan Conference in Tokyo on Tuesday. "I have no doubt that we can do it. The way to do this is through such meetings and conferences. I'm sure this is the first conference but not the last. There will be such conferences every year and soon we will have such a conference in Tel Aviv full of Japanese businesspeople. The direction is clear and both Israelis and Japanese will benefit."

Levin described Israel as "an economic miracle, without natural resources, which has to face enormous challenges, including geopolitical challenges but also internal challenges. Israel has become a significant economy and a leader in the fields of technology. It is not for nothing that we have been awarded the title of 'Startup Nation' because of the innovation in many sectors such as agrotech, software, artificial intelligence, cyber, fintech. We are considered a startup nation, but we are already far beyond the startup economy. We don’t only have startup companies, but we already have the insight that we must move from a startup economy to a growth economy and become a scale-up nation.”

Levin admitted that it is a "complex journey" and emphasized that Israel "has the infrastructure, the tools, the skills, the business community, and the right businesspeople to do it. When we look at the journey and examine what is missing, we see we have a lot to learn. One of the nations we can learn from is undoubtedly Japan."

Regarding the relationship between Israel and Japan, the CEO of Discount Bank emphasized that "we have a lot in common such as innovation, determination, aspiration for excellence, and a strong desire to establish the best companies in the world. This is why I believe that the journey of Israel's economy and the journey of Japan - which is also on a journey designed to establish its business supremacy in the world - can integrate and enrich each other. We have a lot in common." However, Levin pointed out that "there are also significant differences between us" that should also need to be accounted for.