Jeff Pulver is a serial entrepreneur. He has been travelling to Israel for decades, promoting, investing in and encouraging the country’s technology. In an extensive interview, he questions whether the world has still to fully appreciate the extent of the Holy Land’s contribution to the high-tech / cleantech / nanotech / biotech / mobile revolutions.

The discussion is timely. This coming week in Tel Aviv, thousands of overseas delegates will converge on the Mixiii Innovation Conference, a celebration of nearly everything that Israel has to offer in these fields.

Israel loves to see itself as a direct equivalent to Silicon Valley. Waze and ReWalk are just two of dozens of Israeli companies changing the lives of people around the globe. Eric Schmidt, the CEO of Google, recently considered that the next Google could well emerge from Israel.

If I had to choose two examples of what Israeli brawn is contributing to the global economy, I would start with Innovation Africa. This is a stunning project, which is able to introduce Israeli water and irrigation projects to some of the poorest yet most populated areas in the world. Second, and at the other end of the spectrum, is SCiO. This minute device is able to assess in a few seconds the sweetness of a fruit, how much fat is in a lump of cheese and even if your Viagra tablet is a fake.

Pulver may be right. Maybe the business leaders of the world have yet to comprehend how a country the size of Wales is able to produce such a wealth of brilliant concepts. That said, those who turn up at Mixiii in Tel Aviv are going to have a ball.