CRI听力:Facing Future Challenges by Co-innovation

Uriel Peled, the Chief Marketing Officer of an Israeli technology company Visualead, joined the Israel-Asia Summit to find cooperation opportunities with Asian countries.

He has just come back from China from promoting his company's visual QR code generator and is expected to cooperate with one of China's biggest social networks.

For Peled, it is important for a start-up company to bring its ideas to other parts of the world.

"If we invent something and we keep it, if no one will use it, then it's useless. So I think that without cooperation, without sharing both technology and business, it will be much harder for the world to move forward. It is much better that each country would bring its own innovation and share it with the world."

His idea of co-innovation is exactly the focus of the summit, which is themed as "Innovating Solutions for Tomorrow's Challenges".

Rebecca Zeffert, Founder and Executive Director of Israel-Asia Center who organizes the summit, hopes different countries can combine their strengths to collaborate more successfully in the future.

"Different countries innovate in a very different way. Each other has challenges and its own experiences. It's about working together, innovating together, working with local partners who have local knowledge and understanding of the culture, and finding solutions together. I don't think one country can come with a particular solution and it can be just imposed on another country, it's not gonna work, it has to be combined with local knowledge."

Known as a Start-up nation, Israel is famous for its innovation and entrepreneurship around the world.

Lu Gang, founder and chief editor of Technode.com, one of the most influential Chinese blogs covering the latest news in the Asian web industry, says the creative spirit is especially valuable for Chinese companies to learn.

"I especially hope to cooperate with organizations here to offer a platform to get more Asian people together. It's valuable for more Chinese companies to come here to learn the innovation spirit, and China is a good market for Israeli companies. This summit is just a beginning."

And many experts have now started for calling a change in the Israeli perception of China as well, to see it not just as a large market but a place to collaborate with as well.

Saul Singer, co-author of "Start-Up Nation", a business best-seller on Israel's economic miracle, says Israelis need to start thinking differently about China.

"There are many talented innovators and inventors and entrepreneurs in China. The good news about innovation and entrepreneurship is that it doesn't take that many people, and it doesn't mean you have to change your entire culture either, and you can create a subculture in your country that's friendly to entrepreneurs that allows them to flourish, and that is what the innovation sector is. I think China already has this beginning to grow and it can grow much bigger."

Singer says every country has to build its innovation sector on its own strength, history and culture, and build it in its own way.

For CRI, I'm Marc Cavigli.