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Israeli science and technology minister in Belgrade
“I have been informed about the Science Development Strategy which Serbia adopted,” the Israeli minister said in Belgrade today. Hershkowitz met with Serbian Deputy Prime Minister Božidar Đelić, and invited him to visit Israel in order to continue talks about cooperation, said reports. Hershkowitz pointed out that Israel was investing about five percent of gross domestic product (GDP) in science but that private sector was also investing, which was 20 times more than the figure in Serbia. “We have agreed to strengthen bilateral cooperation which already exists between the Institute of Physics and the (Serbian) Institute Mihailo Pupin, and institutions in Israel, and to work together and consult on construction of science infrastructure,” Đelić was quoted as saying. The Serbian deputy PM stressed that cooperation in the field of commercialization of science had been agreed and mentioned as an example an Israeli institute which annually earned USD 120mn from patents which, it then reinvested in science. Đelić also announced that he would likely visit Israel in October. However, beside pledging future cooperation in the sector of science and technology, the two ministers apparently also took time to discuss the so-called Satellite Affair. Đelić announced today that he would propose that a part of the money intended for payment of the debt to Israeli company ImageSet be used for acquisition of Israeli technology. “If it comes to such an agreement, it must include implementation of military technologies for civilian purposes,“ Đelić said. The deputy PM, however, stressed that ImageSet was a privately-owned company from Israel, therefore it could not be a subject of interstate agreements. The contract on leasing the satellite owned by ImageSet was signed by then Serbia and Montenegro Defense Minister Prvoslav Davinić in 2005. International arbitrage in the case has determined that Serbia should pay EUR 36mn in accordance with the document’s provisions. Source: Tanjug, Beta
