Nick Baird is the CEO of Britain’s UKTI, the government’s prime public organisation to promote exports.  A seasoned diplomat, Baird was recently in Israel. As he explained in an interview published in Hebrew, UKTI is deliberately targeting Israel because of the country’s “innovation and energy”.

What Baird is saying is that the UK can not only benefit from Israel’s position as the Silicon valley in the Middle East. Just look at the ” Tech Hub” set up between the two countries, exploiting Israel’s strat-up methodology. He understands that as Israel’s economy has continued to grow at around 3% annually, the Holy Land is open for business to receive Britain’s hungry exporters.

There are no end of examples of Israel’s technological capabilities. This week, the news wires are blaring out how Google is paying over a billion dollars for an Israeli app called Waze. That makes the deal more valuable than for Instagram.

The result is that Google will attain a very important capability which will slot in with its maps and Google Plus services. People will begin to use Google to find parking places. In effect, Waze will provide a healthy lead on competitors looking to profer similar options.

Israel is also a prime player in biotech. At this week’s Biomed forum in Tel Aviv, the official British delegation was comprised of over 20 members. For example, I met up with Medidata from West London as well as Huntingdon Life Sciences. Both have quickly realised the potential commercial scope of the Israeli market.

What I found fascinating was the speech given by Dr Jeremy Levin, CEO and President of Teva, which when translated into English means ‘nature’. Addressing a reception at the home of the British ambassador to Israel, Levin noted that Teva now has four factories in the UK. He estimates that they produce about eight billion tablets a year or about one in six of every pill consumed on the British mainland.

This is not just about saving lives. As Levin noted, by sharing ideas, lives are improved and communities are enhanced – just what Nick Baird is setting out to do.