Man of the Year Stef Wertheimer

Author: Petr Lyukimson, Israel, exclusive to VK

The council for the development of business ties between Israel and Turkey named the Israeli billionaire Stef Wertheimer Man of the Year. Wertheimer's honorary diploma says that he is recognized Man of the Year "for the cause of life, an outstanding contribution to the development of regional economic relations in general and in the development of relations between Israel and Turkey in particular, as well as for the Gazba industrial park created by him in the Turkish province.


Industrial park in Gazba today is jointly owned by local authorities and Stef Wertheimer who has invested $ 10 million in this business project. Prior to that, Wertheimer created five industrial parks in Israel: Tefen, Tel Hai, Lavon and Dalton in the Galilee and Omer in the Negev.


Today in the industrial park of Gazba there are more than 100 "high-tech" enterprises which employ about 1,200 people. Enterprises of this industrial park, in turn, actively cooperate with foreign countries, and most of all - with Azerbaijan.


At the award ceremony in honour of Stef Wertheimer many speakers pointed out that, despite the deterioration of relations in the political sphere, the economic relations between Israel and Turkey continue to evolve rapidly. In particular, the fact is that, compared to 2010, in 2011 the export of Israeli products to Turkey increased by 34% and imports of Turkish goods to Israel - by 22%, a total trade turnover between the two countries exceeded $ 4 billion. For 2012 there are no final data yet, but economists have promised that they will be even more impressive.