Title
Three-Year Membership with Arizona Israel Technology Alliance (Ordinance S-47444)
Description
Request to authorize the City Manager, or his designee, to pay membership dues to the Arizona Israel Technology Alliance for May 2021 through April 2023 in the amount of $15,000 annually, for a total amount not to exceed $45,000. Further request authorization for the City Controller to disburse funds related to this item. There is no impact to the General Fund.
Report
Summary
The City entered into its first one-year membership with the Arizona Israel Technology Alliance (AITA) in September 2019. With 22 members, representing the private sector, economic development organizations, municipalities and trade organizations from Arizona and Israel, the AITA focuses on attracting Israeli foreign direct investment (FDI) to Phoenix and Arizona. In addition, the AITA provides support to any Israeli mergers and acquisitions business, and continued expansion of existing Israeli businesses in Phoenix.
Through monthly briefings with Community and Economic Development Department (CEDD) staff, AITA is proving vital to the City's long-term strategic international economic initiatives. AITA, along with its members, has generated a number of warm leads between the City and Israeli Agrifood Tech companies. It is hoped these warm leads will yield agreements as part of CEDD's Agrifood Tech 100 Business Attraction strategy and its broader Food System Entrepreneurship and Innovation Program. Beyond just Agrifood Tech, AITA's program manager in Israel continues to assist in the building of connections with Biotech companies in Israel in support of CEDD's Bioscience Healthcare Strategic Initiative.
AITA connects Phoenix to Israel - a world leader in startups, with more than 2,000 startups in the past decade, focused in areas contributing to Phoenix's international trade strategy of FDI and business attraction in defense and security, autonomous vehicles, biotech, cyber tech and agrifood tech. Since its inception in 2017, AITA has assisted 70 Israeli companies with Arizona projects including business development, hiring personnel and more. AITA also provides webinars to promote business-to-business connections, such as "The Growth of Israeli Companies in Arizona" in October 2020, attended by more than 100 individuals representing companies in Israel and Arizona (roughly evenly split).
If approved, the City's thee-year membership will be valid through the following years:
- May 2021 - April 2022
- May 2022 - April 2023
- May 2023 - April 2024
Financial Impact
Membership dues are $15,000 annually, not to exceed a total of $45,000 over the course of three years. There is no impact to the General Fund. Funding is available in the Downtown Community Reinvestment Fund.
Concurrence/Previous Council Action
This item was recommended for approval by the Workforce and Economic Development Subcommittee at the March 24, 2021 meeting by a vote of 3-0.
Department
Responsible Department
This item is submitted by Interim Deputy City Manager John Chan and the Community and Economic Development Department.