A new S&T cooperation initiative

According to the Jerusalem Post, Israel's President Shimon Peres wants to set up a council of developing countries that have binational agreements with Israel, with the aim of expanding research and development for the mutual benefit of all member states.

Peres, who is intently focused on the council, will raise the matter at the World Economic Forum in Davos next week during meetings with world leaders and heads of major companies.

The president "is keen on forming the council because agreements between governments are little more than just that."

"Now, it has to be both private and public," Peres said, "because governments have budgets, but they don't have money."

The plan, in principle, is to set up a series of foundations as offshoots of the council so that profits coming out of specific R&D in which individual foundations have invested will be returned in part to those foundations.

Israel has some experience in this field and would be willing to help other countries get started, said Peres.

Comment: I have some knowledge of the three U.S.-Israel binational foundations (science, agricultural research, and industrial research and development), and I would agree that Israel does indeed have some useful experience to share.

The President of Israel also is likely to understand very well how to use science as a diplomatic tool to improve relations with other nations. I was very much involved in the U.S. funded Middle East Regional Cooperation Program (MERC) as well as the U.S.-Israel Cooperative Development Research Program (CDR) which were explicitly designed to build better diplomatic relations for Israel with its neighbor states and with developing nations.

Of course these initiatives will not achieve their political objectives if they don't result in good research and development, and will best meet those objectives if they have economic and social payoffs. JAD